Norwegian Minister of Education, who spoke out against plagiarism, resigned: the official was caught plagiarizing a master's thesis
Kyiv • UNN
Norway's Minister of Research and Higher Education Sandra Borch resigned after admitting to plagiarizing part of her 2014 master's thesis. More than 20% of her thesis was copied from other student papers, making her position unacceptable.
Norwegian minister Sandra Borch, who promoted the fight against plagiarism, resigned after it was revealed last week that she had copied parts of her master's thesis ten years ago. This was reported by UNN with reference to politico.
When I was writing my master's thesis about 10 years ago, I made a big mistake. I took text from other assignments without giving credit to the source. I'm sorry.
Details
Sandra Borch, Norway's Minister of Research and Higher Education, admitted at a press conference on January 19 that she had plagiarized parts of her academic work. She made the admission after accusations of plagiarizing her master's thesis began to circulate online.
After making this statement, she officially resigned.
Earlier, the minister actively opposed plagiarism and even tried to punish students for copying other people's work.
There is a well-known story in the media about a Norwegian student who fought charges of academic misconduct for plagiarizing his own work and was acquitted in a lower court. However, Borch took his case to the Norwegian Supreme Court to appeal the verdict. She argued that this is "important for all students, universities" and colleges in Norway.
A business student from Oslo, angered by the minister's decision to crack down on self-plagiarism, posted detailed accusations of plagiarism against Borch's own thesis on social network X, including spelling mistakes she copied from other people's work.
According to the Norwegian publication E24, more than 20 percent of Borch's 2014 thesis at the University of Tromsø was taken from six other student papers.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Borch's actions are "incompatible with the trust required for the position of Minister of Research and Higher Education.
On Tuesday, Borch handed over her duties to Oddmund Løkensgaard Hoel, who assured her that he had not plagiarized his thesis.
