The syndicate of the University of Madras on Friday unanimously decided not to approve the Ph.D qualification of an associate professor after he was found to have plagiarised his doctoral thesis.
T. Santhanam, currently principal of D.G. Vaishnav College, an aided institution affiliated to the University, was found to have plagiarised three core chapters of his doctoral thesis from a 1974 doctoral thesis by an American scholar.
The issue of plagiarisation was brought to the notice of the University by Regina Vincent, a resident of Korattur in the city on September 29, a day after Mr. Santhanam was appointed as principal.
Ms. Vincent alleged that Mr. Santhanam had copied the thesis ‘The validation of a computer simulation model using spectral analysis’ of John Witherspoon Gowens II of Arizona State University, who was awarded Ph.D degree in business administration in 1974.
Ms. Vincent wanted to know how Mr. Santhanam could have completed an M.Sc in Physics and a PG diploma in Computer Application, both in the same month and year. He was awarded both degrees in April 1987 by the Bharathidasan University, Tiruchi.
Mr. Santhanam, former head of the Department of Computer Applications at the college, had done his Ph.D from the University under the guideship of S.P. Rajagopalan, the then dean, college development council. He was awarded the Ph.D in 2001.
Copied in toto
The University sent both the theses to a subject expert for evaluation and found that Mr. Santhanam had copied in toto chapters 3,4, and 5.
On Friday, the findings were placed before the Syndicate, which unanimously decided not to approve his qualification.
It is a norm that whenever candidates are appointed to a post, the University must approve their qualification, after which the government will start paying the salary of the candidate.
The approval of qualification is also necessary for the candidate to sit in the faculty selection committee of the college.
“It is one of the rarest of the rare cases where the University had to take such an action. The college will have to select a new principal,” said P. Duraisamy, University Vice Chancellor.
No action has been planned against the guide, who was also formerly the principal of the same college, the VC said.
Credit transfer approved
The Syndicate also passed a regulation for credit transfer for students going abroad for a semester or more. Students can now transfer two credits to the University they have been accepted into, both abroad and in India, and earn a degree.
The syndicate also approved the change of regulation to include online courses through which students can take online courses and earn up to 20% of the total credits.
“The students can choose courses from Swayam platform of the MHRD and take the exams. The courses that they can take must be approved by the department,” Mr. Duraisamy said.
