Norway’s research and higher education minister responsible for fighting plagiarism has resigned over allegations that she copied part of her master’s thesis from a decade ago, POLITICO reports.
Sandra Borch, the minister overseeing anti-plagiarism efforts, admitted at a press conference on 19 January that she had plagiarised her dissertation after the allegations surfaced online. She formally resigned on Tuesday. Borch told local media:
When I wrote my master’s thesis around 10 years ago, I made a big mistake. I took text from other assignments without stating the source. I am sorry.
Borch’s confession comes after the minister had earlier tried to penalise students for self-plagiarism. One student fought a misconduct charge for plagiarising his own work and was acquitted in a lower court. However, Borch took the case all the way to the Norwegian Supreme Court to appeal the verdict. She stated that “it is important for all students, universities and colleges in Norway that the rules on cheating and their application are clear.”
In response, an Oslo student who said he was outraged by the minister’s decision to crack down on self-plagiarism and posted detailed accusations on website X that Borch’s thesis had been plagiarised, including spelling mistakes she allegedly copied from other people’s work.
About 20 per cent of Borch’s thesis, written in 2014 at the University of Tromsø, was taken from six other students’ papers, Norwegian publication E24 reported. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said Borch’s actions were “incompatible with the credibility required to be minister of research and higher education.”
On Tuesday, Borch handed over her duties to Oddmund Løkensgaard Hoel, who promised that he had not plagiarised his own dissertation.
However, the case of plagiarising MPs’ academic papers did not end there. Health Minister Ingvild Kjerkol, who defended her dissertation in 2021, has now been accused of plagiarism. She told local media that “it should not have happened” but said it was an honest mistake and denied any deliberate offence. The Prime Minister backed her and said it was a matter for the university.
In a statement to local media, Nord University, where Kjerkol earned her degree, said it was investigating.
