Fake PhDs Revoked in Russian Academic Crackdown

The Russian academic authorities on Friday revoked the doctoral degrees of 11 people accused of plagiarizing their dissertations, in what it said was the first step in a crackdown on an alleged network cranking out fake PhDs. All 11 PhD holders stripped of titles by the Higher Attestation Commission – including Andrei Andriyanov, 30, a member of the ruling United Russia party – defended their dissertations at the Moscow State Pedagogic University. The scandal broke out after Andriyanov – who holds a PhD in history – was appointed last March to head the Kolmogorov School, an elite Moscow mathematical school. Bloggers, who accused Andriyanov of securing the job through his connections, rather than his qualifications, examined his dissertation and reported numerous violations of PhD requirements and plagiarism. A hastily convened state commission checked a sample of 25 dissertations defended at the Moscow State Pedagogic University in 2007-2012, including Andriyanov’s, and found violations and plagiarism in 24 of them. http://en.ria.ru/science/20130215/179492778.html