10 High-Profile People Whose Degrees Were Revoked

These notable figures saw their degrees stripped for plagiarism or other crimes.

May 2, 2012 RSS Feed Print

Universities can revoke degrees if they discover cheating or other irregularities.

Although college and graduate school alumni may assume their diplomas are set in stone, there's no such thing as "no backsies" when it comes to college conferrals, as Joel McHale's character on the television show Community knows. McHale plays Jeff Winger, a lawyer who enrolls in community college after his degree is revoked. School administrators—both on television and in real life—seem to think of the degrees they dole out like driver's licenses, which can be suspended or revoked for bad behavior.

In 1918, University of Pennsylvania trustees struck two honorary degree holders from its record for their activities in World War I: Germany's kaiser and its ambassador to the United States and Mexico.

More recently, some schools have resisted pressure to recall certain degrees. Last February, University of St. Andrews chose not to withdraw Fred Goodwin's honorary doctorate, despite his role in the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The London School of Economics and Political Science also decided recently to let Muammar Qadhafi's son Saif al-Islam, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, keep his Ph.D.

Here are 10 high-profile cases of universities in the United States and abroad stripping alumni of their academic degrees.

1. Gaming Olympics studies: In April 2012, Pál Schmitt resigned as president of Hungary a week after his doctorate was withdrawn by Semmelweis University in Budapest. According to a BBC report, Semmelweis accused Schmitt, a two-time Olympic fencing gold medalist, of plagiarizing entire passages of his doctoral thesis. There was at least partial copying on nearly 200 pages of Schmitt's 215-page thesis, according to a Semmelweis committee.

[Read about how university-verified badges vouch for students and alumni.]

2. Defenseless minister: Although Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the former German defense minister, seemed to be heir-apparent to Chancellor Angela Merkel, he resigned on March 1, 2011 after admitting to plagiarizing parts of his legal doctorate. Universität Bayreuth revoked his degree, citing "serious errors" in his paper.

Guttenberg isn't the only German politician to be punished by his alma mater. Two members of the European Parliament also lost their degrees due to plagiarism: University of Heidelberg revoked Silvana Koch-Mehrin's doctorate, and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis lost his doctorate from University of Bonn.

3. Pharmaceutical power: In 2008, the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University announced that it was revoking the E.M.B.A. it had awarded Heather Bresch, the daughter of Joe Manchin III, then West Virginia's governor.

Tags:: plagiarism,; students,; colleges,; education,; graduate schools,; ethics,; academics

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Today, I logged in XID that I once registered at the official site of Harvard University, but not activated.
Until then, I have cancelled it from the data.
It is issue of the university credibility!
As a result, I was deceived by the professors in school of law, business
JD and DBA to be given to me in 2011.

pepepe9999 12:28AM December 06, 2012

I have become aware of serious questions about two different degrees of two different people. The transgressions seem obvious, but the degrees were granted in he 1970s and 1980s from major state universities. Who investigates these things. All I know is what others have said and the lack of education acquired,which is obvious. If there were an investigation there would be many witnesses. The allegations is that tuition was paid degrees awarded but other people attended the classes. WHO DO I TURN TO? People say, that was in the past. Well, the concern arise due to their current shady dealings. Not the past at all. To make the current activity look intentional rather than just another case where they seem not to work and find great benefit while leaving a trail of destruction.

Mark of FL 9:14PM July 04, 2012

MLK was a genius. He, almost alone understood that a non violence movement would advance civil rights for all Americans further and faster than all the provoked violence, psychopathic taunting, public lynching had accomplished. What are you suggesting we do, rattle his bones. If we had the assassinated leader to address the issue I believe it would more thoroughly demote the education mafia than it would diminish his brave accomplishments. He stood alone, the FBI smeared him secretly. Blackmailed him to commit suicide. Why would he maintain incriminating evidence. It appears that Jim's collection of papers led to this charge. It is an old trick. A public figure here in Tampa had to spend a million dollars from his own pocket to establish that the charges were trumped up. There was no evidence in the final analysis. After all, these professors have an odd sense of using libraries. As a famous historian said after publication of his heavily researched background of personal experiences in WWII, he made notes, lots of notes. Sometimes he put notes in his note books that did not have quotes. In every case he had recognized the works. There was a note he made about the sky somewhere. The description had been used earlier. There are no ideas, or so few new ideas by so few people that is very hard to understand where anyone has the nerve to claim any thought as his own. Disney claims it own the rights to all the Grimm Fairytales he turned into cartoons. how is Snowwhite his to claim, or Cinderella, these classics were a century old before Disney was born. When we outlaw library research we set the world back. The loss of the library at Alexandria is said to have brought on the Dark Ages where people marveled at ancient roads bridges, water works, harbors, public buildings but had no earthly idea how it was accomplished for a thousand years. The world is full of nut jobs. Tell me, do you imagine you might have a right wing race baiting attitude? How often have you gone to a library?

Mark Gibbons of FL 9:02PM July 04, 2012

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10 High-Profile People Whose Degrees Were Revoked

These notable figures saw their degrees stripped for plagiarism or other crimes.

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