The Scientist, Reader's Comment, Fee-paying uni students bully academics for good marks, Tracey Spicer, The Punch, 9 March 2010: http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/fee-paying-uni-students-bully-academics-for-good-marks/ Historical link preserved from the original page.
University of New England: Imre Bokor reports plagarism and is put on notice that he could face academic misconduct charges.
Whistleblower Imre Bokor, a University of New England (UNE) mathematician, reported that some Masters theses were plagiarised.
He was told by the university that he could face charges of academic misconduct.
It was alleged that he had failed to raise the alert "immediately and directly" after he had detected suspect theses.
More than 100 overseas students seem to have graduated from the University of New England with copied masters theses.
Dr Bokor said that he had made himself unpopular with superiors for opposing the program as unsound from the outset.
220 of the 230 theses that were checked seemed to be plagiarised.
A visiting Polish academic alerted him in July 2006 to the abysmal standard of one of the first theses to emerge from the program, begun in 2004.
"I realised, just by reading the first page, it was obviously plagiarised, " Dr Bokor said.
Dr Bokor said he believed a October 2007 panel report had been selective in apportioning blame and senior managers had not been held properly to account.
Instead, he had been targeted, he said.
In May last year, UNE put him on notice that he could face academic misconduct charges.