In 2014, all master’s students were sent written reasons for the decision to censor the master’s thesis, according to UiT.
It took Sandra Borch barely five minutes to resign as minister of research and higher education when textual similarities were discovered in her master’s thesis in law from 2014. When she appeared for an interview on Dagsrevyen earlier this week, she said that textual similarities were discovered in the thesis hers already in 2014, and that she was therefore withdrawn in character. However, she claimed that she received no written justification.
– In 2014, you get the grade, you don’t necessarily get the assessment of the assignment. You only get the grade on the assignment, said Borch on Dagsrevyen.
This is rejected by UiT – Norway’s Arctic University. “All master’s students were sent written reasons for the decision to censor the master’s thesis,” they write in a written statement.
On the basis of a number of media reports, UiT has found it necessary to clarify matters related to censorship, text similarity and cheating, as well as what is the procedure for suspected cheating.
This was the routine at the Faculty of Law in 2014:
- All master’s theses submitted at the Faculty of Law in 2014 were reviewed by plagiarism control once.
- All master’s theses were anonymised when they were censored.
- All master’s students were sent written reasons for the decision to censor the master’s thesis.
Borch has not yet responded to Forskerforum’s inquiries.
Julia Holte Sempler, Acting Director of the Department for Research, Education and Communication at UiT, tells Forskerforum that they do not comment on individual cases and therefore have no further statements about these discrepancies.
The master’s thesis is now being processed by the committee for student affairs at UiT, which will make a decision in mid-March. The daily newspaper have spoken to people close to the process and according to the newspaper it seems that Borch will be acquitted of cheating. Borch received a grade D on the assignment in 2014, and this is likely to remain.
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