A professor was removed from his post at China's prestigious Tsinghua University earlier this month for faking his academic achievements and work experience.
China's Ministry of Education confirmed this on Monday and Wang Xuming, the ministry's spokesman, said: "According to China's law on higher education, colleges and universities are empowered to employ and dismiss personnel."
In November 2005, Fang Zhouzi, who is known for exposing academic scandal in China, claimed that professor Liu Hui of Tsinghua University had listed a paper by a US-based professor with similar initials, namely "Liu H", in his resume when he applied for a job at the university's college of medicine.
Fang also questioned the validity of Liu's claim that he had previously been a director of a research center with a US-based medical school between 1999 and 2004. Fang alleged that although Liu had worked in a laboratory in the US, he was not a leader of any kind.
Liu, who was accepted by Tsinghua in June 2004, admitted that the paper was not his own, but denied any wrongdoing blaming a misprint by the library's data retrieval system.
After further investigation, university authorities decided to sack 47-year-old Liu on March 10, according to the university's two relevant regulations on academic fraud and staff management.
The Ministry of Education has decided to enhance academic discipline by setting up a special commission to monitor academic fraud and plagiarism in the near future. But no decision has been made on when this will be done.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2006)
