School strips alumnus actor’s PhD over plagiarism
The Beijing Film Academy (BFA) revoked alumnus actor Zhai Tianlin’s doctorate following an investigation into allegations of plagiarism in one of his published papers.
Zhai’s PhD adviser, Chen Yi, was disqualified from teaching doctoral candidates. Both Zhai and Chen accepted the school’s decision and further investigations will continue, according to a notice BFA posted on its Sina Weibo account Tuesday afternoon.
Zhai, 32, graduated from BFA with a doctorate last summer. But 40 percent of the paper mentioned above was revealed to be plagiarized after his admission into a post-doctoral position at Peking University drew netizens’ attention.
Zhai appeared ignorant of the cnki.net, a famous Chinese database of academic literature, in a live broadcast in August 2018.
Portions of his paper were based on Zhai’s acting experience, but some key expressions were the views of other academics, which were not properly cited. This is a serious academic misconduct, the BFA notice said.
Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management on Saturday announced its decision to expel Zhai from its postdoctoral station.
The review of Zhai’s admissions materials during the interview and recruiting process was lax, the university said in the statement.
There is no tolerance for academic misconduct which infringes on educational equality. Investigations into the case should not only about one person, but extend to related working procedures, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said at a routine press conference on Friday in response to Zhai’s scandal.
The scandal broke out two weeks ago and refused to die down after angry netizens condemned not only the academic fraud but also the damage done by renowned Chinese universities to fair education opportunities by opening a “backdoor” to the rich and powerful.
The scandal raised alarm bells at BFA, Peking University and all higher education institutions, which should strengthen regulations over academic management, Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow at the National Institute of Education Sciences, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
Without giving specific names, Chu said some universities have already started internal investigations and reforms. “Conferral of illegitimatelyearned degrees has a long history in China, and some of the degree holders are in high positions in government or industry,” he said.