Certified copies

Some have seen this as an integrity deficit in the educational system in post-communist Romania. As academic achievement became commodified,they say,it became easier to buy degrees,cheating became rampant,even as academic credentials remained valuable. However,Romania is no exception. Gaddafis son,Saif al-Islam,it was recently discovered,had little personal contribution to his LSE thesis. European politicians who have been singed by plagiarism scandals include German politicians Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg,Jorgo Chatzimarkakis and Silvana Koch-Mehrin,and former Hungarian president Pal Schmitt. US Vice-President Joe Biden has been accused of plagiarism in law school. Its possible that India,too,has its share of heavy lifters among politicians we have certainly had our share of academic plagiarism exposés.

While universities and workplaces now see plagiarism in morally absolute terms,it wasnt always so. Originality and theft are not opposing concepts,and creativity often rests on borrowing. However,academic dishonesty is a different matter it is not a matter of intellectual influences,but about the fundamental obligation to flag other peoples insights,to cite your sources. Pontas alleged scholarly fraudulence may not only blight his own political career,it could also discredit Romanias once-formidable science and education system.