Chung Hua University dismissed on Thursday an allegation of academic plagiarism against Kuomintang (KMT) Hsinchu City mayoral candidate Lin Ken-jeng (林耕仁) regarding his master’s thesis published in 2005.
After a series of five meetings, a review committee concluded that Lin did not plagiarize his thesis but found “flaws” in his academic work, the university said in a statement Thursday.
Lin was accused by a group of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers last month of copying the thesis of a man surnamed Tai (戴), who was older than Lin by one year at the university.
The allegation followed the withdrawal of the DPP’s former Hsinchu mayor Lin Chih-chien (林智堅) from the Taoyuan mayoral race in early August for the alleged plagiarism of his master’s theses from Chung Hua University and National Taiwan University. The plagiarism was later confirmed by both schools.
The committee had looked into the accusation and crossed-checked Lin’s thesis against that of Tai for plagiarism, concluding that the “allegation was not substantiated,” the university said.
However, the committee found that some subtitles in Lin’s thesis were identical to those in Tai’s thesis and considered these to be “flaws” that could have been avoided if he had had a serious attitude to his academic work, the university added.
Lin was also accused of plagiarizing his master’s thesis from National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, which was published in 2011.
The university established a committee to review the case early last month and said a result was expected in 120 days.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel