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The High Court has directed the University Grants Commission to monitor the process of conferring PhDs in universities and report back in three months, reports bdnews24.com.
It also issued a rule asking why the authority will not be ordered to take measures to scrutinise or audit a dissertation by an information technology specialist, prior to its finalisation to prevent plagiarism by teachers or researchers.
On Tuesday, Justice AFRM Nazmul Ahsan and Justice KM Kamrul Kader issued the order following the primary hearing of a writ petition seeking an order to stop plagiarism and cheating in a PhD or equivalent degrees.
The education secretary, the Dhaka University vice-chancellor and the UGC chairman were asked to respond to the rule.
On Jan 21, the Prothom Alo published a report saying that “98% of a PhD dissertation submitted by a DU teacher was plagiarised.
Abul Kalam Lutful Kabir, a teacher of pharmaceutical technology, was terminated for plagiarism from the academic and administrative programme of Dhaka University in a syndicate meeting led by the vice chancellor on Jan 28. He held the post of assistant proctor too. A panel was formed to probe the allegation.
The High Court asked the VC to submit the probe report by the panel in 60 days. Md Moniruzzaman Lincoln was the petitioner while Deputy Attorney General ABM Abdullah Al Mahmud Bashar was the state counsel.
“We were aware that teachers and researchers in our education system often opt for cheating or unfair means while pursuing a PhD or equivalent degree. We were worried about it. Recently, the Prothom Alo published a report on the issue,” Moniruzzaman, a lawyer, told bdnews24.com.
“The court expressed its concern asking where we stand as a nation if we need to adopt illegal means to secure a higher educational degree. Dhaka University was known as the Oxford of the East and it does not even rank in the first 100 universities globally. This is very unfortunate,” the lawyer said.
Abul Kalam Lutful Kabir, an associate professor of DU’s Pharmaceutical Technology Department, achieved a ‘doctorate’ degree in 2015 through a PhD dissertation mostly copied from another ‘student’s work’ at BRAC University, the Prothom Alo reported. His write-up has notable similarity to 17 journals, articles and research papers which were published before Lutful Kabir’s thesis.