LSE probes ‘plagiarised’ thesis by Gaddafi’s son

The Times has reported that the LSE ruling council will be meeting to discuss the future of the £ 300,000 donation that it got as part of the £1.5 million pledge by Seif Gaddafi after he was awarded the doctorate in 2008,besides instituting the formal inquiry into the plagiarism allegations.

Lord Desai,who is a columnist for The Indian Express,has however clarified that he had no role to play in deciding on donations accepted by the LSE as he retired from the college in 2003. He has also said that as an examiner,he was never alerted that plagiarism was suspected in Gaddafi’s thesis.

“At no stage were we alerted by his supervisors or anyone else that plagiarism was suspected. We found no reason to believe that the thesis was not the candidate’s own work. I retired from LSE in 2003 and had no role in deciding whether donations from the Qaddafi Foundation should be accepted or not,” Desai told The Indian Express.

He also said that he,along with Professor Tony McGrew of the University of Southampton,were appointed examiners of the PhD by the University of London and were not supervisors of the thesis. “We read the thesis and examined Mr Gaddafi orally for two and a half hours. At the end of the examination,we concluded that the thesis needed some revisions and hence he was asked to resubmit the thesis with the revisions within 18 months. When we got the revised the thesis,we approved it for a Phd degree,” he said.