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PLAGIARISM

University professor faces false CV charges

A University of Neuchâtel professor under fire for alleged plagiarism is now facing accusations of falsifying his CV.

University professor faces false CV charges
Professor Sam Blili. Photo: University of Neuchâtel

Professor Sam Blili, of the university’s economics department, larded his biography with positions in Quebec that he never held, according to a report from Le Matin, published online on Friday.

Blili’s CV from 2011 stated that he co-founded of an institute of small and medium businesses that involves 50 people from three faculties at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières, the newspaper said.

The professor also stated that he co-founded an international network of researchers into small and medium businesses, and was co-founder of a “Bombardier” research chair, Le Matin reports.

However, the newspaper contacted one of the co-founders of the institute of small and medium businesses, Pierre-André Julien, an emeritus professor at the University of Quebec, who said Blili never held the positions.

The Canadian university has already asked Blili to remove these references from his CV, Le Matin said.

Through his lawyer, Blili indicated that he had no comments to make about Le Matin’s revelations.

The cantonal department of education in Neuchâtel is reportedly looking into allegations that a book the professor, originally from Quebec, co-wrote is extensively plagiarized.

Le Matin maintains that the book, “La Suisse qui gagne”, authored by Blili and Francis Sermet, another professor, lifts entire passages from other sources without attribution.

The book is required reading for students of Blili, who has been a professor at the University of Neuchâtel since 2002.

A university investigation into the affair led to a report last month with inconclusive results, Le Matin said.
 

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MINISTER

Austrian minister steps down over plagiarism accusations

Austrian minister Christine Aschbacher resigned from her cabinet post in charge of labour, families and youth on Saturday following allegations some of her university work was plagiarised.

Austrian minister steps down over plagiarism accusations
Austrian minister Christine Aschbacher has resigned in the face of plagiarism accusations. Photo: Helmut Fohringer/APA/AFP
A conservative from Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's OeVP party, Aschbacher said she had stepped down to “protect my family”, complaining of “hostility, political agitation and attacks… with unbearable force”.
   
Aschbacher's 2006 master's thesis displayed “plagiarism, incorrect quotations and lack of knowledge of the German language”, alleged blogger Stefan Weber, who specialises in sniffing out academic fraud.
   
At the time, she graduated with high marks from the University of Applied Sciences in Wiener Neustadt, south of Austrian capital Vienna.
   
Weber has levelled the same allegations at a thesis she submitted in May last year — in the depths of the first wave of coronavirus — to the Technical University of Bratislava in neighbouring Slovakia.
 
   
He claimed the work contained “never-before-seen depths of gobbledygook, nonsense and plagiarism” and that more than one-fifth of the text had been lifted from other sources without citations, in particular an article from Forbes magazine.
   
Under attack by the opposition, Aschbacher “rejected” what she called Weber's “insinuations”.
   
Kurz wrote on Twitter that he “respected” her decision to resign, after the scandal piled pressure on a government facing criticism for its management of the second wave of Covid-19, widely seen as chaotic.
   
The chancellor added that he would name a successor on Monday.
   
Academic plagiarism is a regular charge levelled at politicians in the German-speaking world, where leaders often brandish postgraduate qualifications.
   
In Germany, two conservatives, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg and Annett Schavan, stepped down from the defence and education ministries in 2011 and 2013 over similar scandals, while current centre-left Families Minister Franziska Giffey has been dogged by plagiarism allegations for years.
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