{Replik} Study & PhD: Guttenberg & the universities

The resignation of Guttenberg has sparked the discussion about the value of a doctorate and copying in science. The universities are also jointly responsible - because there are other cases of this kind.

Shoe demo

On the 26. February: found a curious, relatively spontaneously organized one in Berlin SALE instead: The first shoe demo – and the first demo ever against a single minister. About 500-700 academics came together to demonstrate against the "doctor games" of the former German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor von Guttenberg, who incidentally was in charge of two German Armed Forces universities.

The commentary on the vidoe also states: “The most annoyed are the scientists at the university that awarded Mr. von Guttenberg the doctoral degree. A process that is usually based on absolute mutual trust and requires reliability. That is why this documentation begins and ends with a quote from BR television. ”

What are university degrees worth?

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Personally, I would not take the universities out of their responsibility. The Süddeutsche Newspaper revealedthat one connected with the minister Companys can Uni Bayreuth, where Guttenberg did his doctorate. A fact that unfortunately went down a bit in the general outrage and discussion about Guttenberg.

But that still prompts me to consider what kind of mischief is being done at German universities with degrees. And brings to the question: What is an academic degree actually worth? So far, a lot, in a country where the job market is becoming more and more on the slip in the Hand because on actual qualifications is squinted. Or has Guttenberg devalued the doctor?

Also on the 26. February: comes an interesting objection from Regine Heidorn. On the side of the Association of Graduates, she questions the value of degrees in general: “I can hardly imagine a better start for the Association of Graduates than the plagiarism discussion and the German Defense Minister losing his doctorate. This excitement fits perfectly with one of our Setnamely, to reflect the value of degrees. From that point of view, I like the observation that the defense minister didn't have to get a doctorate for his political career best. "

Resignation and reactions

On the 1. March: is it so far: Defense Minister zu Guttenberg are all because of the plagiarism allegations against him to give up his political office. This explained the CSU politician in Berlin.

After the resignation: Guttenberg still has many fans in Germany. The Facebook-Page “We want Guttenberg back”, founded just this week, now lists more than 565.000 fans. The arguments, both for and against, are summed up in the following discussion between caller Anja and moderator Holger Klein at the Fritz radio station (attention, it's going to be high ...). Everyone can form their own judgment.

Update: Media strategist Peter Berger and various media have doubts about the authenticity of Guttenberg fans. Reason among other things. The site has more fans than DSDS in nine years. Is it a huge PR gag? Berger also argues that the creator of the site is anonymous - but that has now been done, because it is now known that erotic entrepreneur Tobias Huch is behind it, who also performed live in the flesh and blood of Markus Lanz:

Copy or paste?

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The resignation has unexpected Effect, which now shows that he was obviously far from the only one. Federal Family Minister Kristina Schröder was already controversial before Guttenberg:

Although it has not written off, but apparently made things very simple: First, she wrote about how the values ​​of CDU Bundestag members differ from CDU members at the base.

Schröder and Saß

The federal headquarters of the CDU sent the questionnaires to the 1000 party members surveyed. In addition, Schröder confirmed the scientific Employees her doctoral supervisor as an assistant in the completion of her doctorate.

The daughter of the former Bavarian Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber, Veronica Saß, is said to have copied parts of her doctoral thesis from newspapers and Wikipedia - this was collected from the website VroniPlagWiki. Just today, the University of Konstanz announced that she would therefore be denied her doctoral title.

Pröfrock

And it goes on: As yesterday, the DPA announced, the CDU regional parliamentary Matthias Pröfrock from Waiblingen (Rems-Murr-Kreis) because of the plagiarism accusations against him his doctorate title for the time being.

The parliamentarian is accused of having used numerous text passages by other authors in parts of his legal dissertation without labeling them. Revealed by an unfortunately unspecified Internet-Page.

Koch-Mehrin

And also yesterday it became known that FDP politician Silvana Koch-Mehrin has obviously cheated. The University of Heidelberg The University of Heidelberg has now denied the doctorate and asked them a few days ago to comment.

Opinions

The accumulation of these cases shows: Cooperative work on the Internet works and produces very effective results. This is great and at the same time a deterrent example for other plagiarists. The case also shows how terribly often is nursed at doctor's offices. Good thing that's revealed.

However, the whole thing now has something of a media-effective witch hunt: Guttenberg had tried in vain to downplay the matter, but now the consequences are immediately drawn. And also because the universities and politicians before Anxiety trembling to get the media focus next.

For a long time now, lamentation has come!

At the same time, prominent politicians and their relatives (in the case of Veronica Sass) are specifically sought out to set examples. Of course, promotional fraud is not a petty crime. However, the sudden accumulation of such crimes, three cases in two days, seems strangely exaggerated. Especially the universities for sure so had their advantages from the thing.

There is a danger: Instead of tidying up the swamp, which has been growing for years, you can set some examples for the media - look, we are going to crack down on the cases - and then, when the fuss has subsided, just keep going like before.

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