Ministry of Education and Science Attestation Board reviews academic integrity

Minister Liliya Hrynevych chaired a meeting of the Attestation Board of the Ministry of Education and Science (in Ukrainian) on 1 July 2016. The Attestation Board was meeting to consider a number of issues related to the certification of high-qualification personnel, academic issues with integrity, and academic integrity in the writing and submission of theses.

Specifically, on the basis of negative decisions made by specialised councils and documented text borrowing and plagiarism, specialised academic councils had decided to award a higher postgraduate (“kandidat”) degree to two applicants, but denied one applicant a degree.

The session examined statements by complainants and the conclusions of the academic councils of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences and the Skovoroda National Pedagogical University of Kharkiv regarding the thesis of K.M. Kirilenko, Doctor of Pedagogical Science. Following the discussion. the Attestation Board decided to record their appropriate conclusions.

They also discussed improvements in the legal position on the annulment of academic degrees and revoking the relevant decisions of Specialised Councils in the case of the discovery of text borrowing, plagiarism, the use of ideas, research results and materials from other authors without citing the source. The participants agreed to develop new Procedures for awarding degrees and academic titles, and the formation of a Committee on Ethics and an Appeals Committee of the National Agency for Quality Assurance in Higher Education.

Also, the academic council approved the awarding of academic titles of professor, and associate professor, but refused to assign one academic rank of associate professor; they approved the academic councils’ decisions to award the title of PhD, higher postgraduate (“kandidat”) degrees, and higher postgraduate degrees to citizens of foreign countries.