[Discussion] (no subject)

[Paksoy, Hb]

Chronicle of Higher Education
Wednesday, July 17, 2002

 

  Head of Australia's Largest University Steps Down Amid Allegations of
Plagiarism
By DAVID COHEN

The head of Monash University -- Australia's largest university -- has
stepped down amid accusations that on at least three occasions he
misappropriated the work of other scholars in his academic writings. 

David Robinson, the vice chancellor of Monash, in Melbourne, quit on
Thursday after admitting to each of the allegations of plagiarism, two of
which were first publicized last month in a British newspaper, The Times
Higher Education Supplement. A third accusation surfaced only a week ago,
after a colleague from Monash found a number of striking similarities
between another of Mr. Robinson's published works and one written a number
of years earlier by a fellow academic. 

In the most serious of the instances, it was discovered that Mr. Robinson
had lifted around 20 sentences from another academic's work and used them
without attribution in his own book, Drug Use and Misuse: Cultural
Perspectives (Croom Helm). 

Although he had "unreservedly apologized" for two of the incidents at the
time the plagiarism was discovered, during the early 1980s, when he worked
in his native Britain, Mr. Robinson failed to tell his future Australian
employer about them at the time of his appointment to head Monash in 1996. 

Mr. Robinson, 60, is no longer employed by the Australian university, which
enrolls 45,000 students, about a quarter of them at campuses and learning
centers across Africa, Europe, and Southeast Asia. 

He had been in London last week to open a new Monash center there when he
was summoned back to Australia by his university's board. 

"This has been a difficult period for Monash," its chancellor, Jerry Ellis,
said in a statement announcing the resignation. "I now urge the Monash
community to look to the future with confidence and commitment." 

Asked Tuesday about the likely effect of the controversy on the university's
efforts to find a new president, a spokesman for the university would say
only that Monash expects to appoint an acting head later this week. 

Mr. Robinson, who has since returned to Europe, could not be reached for
comment. But in an interview with the British newspaper after the
allegations first resurfaced, he said that he did not believe the earlier
incidents had affected his ability to lead a university. These were matters
that had "been dealt with and resolved more than 20 years ago," he said.
"... Following my immediate and unreserved apology, no further action was
taken by the publishers, the authors, or by my employers." 





----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----