Central library of the Humboldt University in Berlin – how well are the catalogs provided with plagiarism notices?
Image: picture alliance / ZB
At the request of the CDU science politician Adrian Grasse, the Berlin Senate Administration published exact figures on doctoral examinations for the first time. A university institution leads clearly.
SThe Charité is the leader in doctoral examinations with 21 completed procedures, followed by the Freie Universität with 11 cases. This will also include Franziska Giffey’s doctorate. The Technical University (TU) reports four completed procedures, the Humboldt University (HU) three, and the University of the Arts (UdK) one case. However, “completed” does not necessarily mean “completed”. Some HU cases are still pending in court. This probably includes the argument about the Mainz sociologist Marina Hennig, who is defending herself against the deprivation of her degree before the administrative court.
Not all procedures end with the revocation of the degree. The FU with its 11 cases withdrew the degree eight times, there was one reprimand and three times the deprivation was waived. The fact that there are 12 terminations of proceedings in 11 cases can probably be explained by Giffey. She was initially reprimanded, which constituted unlawful favoritism, after which her degree was revoked. No other university, with the exception of the Charité, issued a “reprimand” for the doctorate. The Charité, where the science platform Vroniplag Wiki had even detected an entire plagiarism cluster with several doctoral theses, last revoked doctoral degrees in 2014. Other cases are currently pending.