Ghost writing,plagiarism and funding
We have read and heard about the German defence minister and Gaddafi’s son who have copied large parts of their work from others or hired ghost writers to write their dissertations, also last year Feds caught a man in California who had operated a ring of academic test-takers who helped Middle Eastern students passing exams.
Obviously some high profile individuals pursue prestigious degrees for decoration purpose , but what about those who are expected to run (or already running) corporations, government entities ,engineers and doctors ?
Also some questionable sponsors have made large donations to some universities, do universities really care who is funding them ?
Do you think higher education institutions should apply stiffer measures to protect their integrity ,reputation and high calibre graduates ? taking into account the current economic and financial crisis.
Gratitude.
hamadaCZ--The Said business school has received donations from a number of unsavory characters, but Wafi, the Saudi-Syrian arms trader is perhaps the least savory. But that is par for the course in higher ed. Eliha Yale of Yale University fame was a governor in the East India Company that made his fortune robbing South Asians. Balliol College of Oxford University was founded in the 13th century as penance of John Balliol for have done very bad things in his life. Andrew Carnegie of Carnegie-Mellon University fame, was a notorious steel baron whose treatment of his workers would make industrial city living look luxurious. The list goes on and on.
My sense that plagiarism is more difficult as we inter the digital age. Simple internet searches and the availability of dissertations digitally enable the powers that be (and other academics who are not attached to the institution) to check these things. This is why so many many famous people are being caught today for things they wrote some time ago.
Gaddafi's son is one case, unfortunately there are many , for example Oxford business school has received a generous donation from an arms dealer.
"Do you think higher education institutions should apply stiffer measures to protect their integrity ,reputation"
yes!
The issue of Gaddafi's son is being blown out of proportion. Gaddafi, like his son, has been friend, enemy, pariah, friend and now a pariah again.
So it all depends on which stage of his metamorphosis this donation was made.
I don't have to tell you how many times I've been interviewed and asked questions like "Tell us about yourself" and received an offer letter few days after.
We don't care much for papers when we hire. 75% go on personality and presence. What someone knows, we'll find out in 15 minutes.
Plagiarism is the future of education. Just live with it. :-P
Its fun to do dude
Am referring to accredited universities,like LSE,not diploma/degree mills.
Those certificate Mills as used to be called are well known. Unfortionately I don't know one in Egypt otherwise I'd do it.
The problem is not a concern of these institutions as long as the certificate holder is not entitled to work or further study in these institutions or the entire country, so why they should care.
The blame is on the back home organisations that are fascinated with the degree with no regard to what it means and how it serves their business.
The certificate verification firms are not news. Anybody in doubt of a certificate can investigate it if he realy cares.
Well, it's not Egypt only,but some of the world's finest universities as well.
There many on-line sites which are offering ghost writing services
Yes I do is the short answer.
For example. Who trusts a degree from Egypt?