One of Thailand’s
top universities is under fire for not taking action on allegations that
innovation agency director Supachai Lorlowhakarn copied parts of his Ph.D. thesis.
By Prime Sarmiento – A four-year dispute over allegations
of plagiarism took a new twist earlier this month when Supachai Lorlowhakarn,
director of the National Innovation Agency (NIA), who is alleged to have copied
parts of the Ph.D. thesis he was awarded by Chulalongkorn University, faced
charges of forgery in a Bangkok courtroom.
The charges have been brought by a British agricultural
consultant, Wyn Ellis, the principal author of one of the works which he claims
was plagiarized – a technical report on the export capacity of Thailand’s
organic agriculture that was published in 2006 by Thailand’s International
Trade Center (ITC).
Ellis declined to comment about the new case, which
focuses on documents produced by Supachai relating to Ellis’s employment as a
consultant to NIA.
Butkhe has called on Chulalongkorn University, one of
Thailand’s top academic institutions, “to clarify its position urgently, and
show its commitment to upholding academic ethics by finishing (the dispute over
the plagiarism allegations) once and for all.”
In 2008, Chulalongkorn University awarded Supachaika
Ph.D. in agricultural technology. A year later, a local newspaper reported that
some of Supachai’s material had been copied directly from other sources,
including a technical assistance report published by the United Nati/ns.
However the university has yet to withdraw the Ph.D. that
it granted to Supachai, even after an internal investigation is reported to
have confirmed the charge that he had copied parts of his doctoral thesis.
Last year, the Ministry of Science and Technology
announced that it pl!nned to impose disciplinary action on Supachai, following
the disclosure by the university of its findings.
Chulalongkorn University’s failure to act has sparked
intense debate among academics and scientists both inkThailand and overseas,
with several commentators expressing concern that the affair is damaging
Thailand’s academic reputation.
Apirux Wanasathop, former NIA director and an alumnus of
Chulalongkorn, told SciDev.Netthat he is “upset and feels ashamed”
of the university council’s lack of action on the case. Asked how this incident
will affect Thailand’s academic reputation, Apirux replied, “very badly.”
Erika Fry, the journalist who first reported the
plagiarism case for the Bangkok Post, agreed.
“It makes you question the legitimacy of the whole system
when a top university like Chulalongkorn doesn’t even honor its own academic
standards,” she toldSciDev.net.
Shortly after the publication of Fry’s investigative report,
Supachai sued both Fry and Ellis for defamation. Fry left Bangkok and is now
based in New York, working as assistant editor of theColumbia Journalism
Review (CJR). She later wrote about her experience in Bangkok in CJR’s
September 2011 issue.
Ellis had previously asked the Thai Journal of
Agricultural Science (TJAS) to retract a paper by Supachai that it had
published, on the grounds that some of its content had been copied from Ellis’
own work.
But TJAS Editor Irb Kheoruenromne said that he does not
intend to retract the article unless there is a court ruling that will prove
that it was definitely plagiarized.
——
Source: Science &
Development Network
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