China's prestigious Peking University has
sacked an English teacher for plagiarism, the Beijing News
reported Thursday.
Huang Zongying was accused of plagiarizing other scholars' ideas
and expressions in his own academic works from 1999 to 2003,
including literary books and academic papers. Huang was an
associate professor of the Department of English Language and
Literature with the university's Foreign Languages School during
the period.
"All his published works during the period have been found to
have apparent, grave and extensive plagiarism, totaling 20
articles," the newspaper quoted an investigation report by the
English Department as saying.
In one of his literary commentary works, a book on American
poet, critic and editor T. S. Eliot, 74 percent of the content was
copied from other scholars' academic achievements, the report
said.
Huang pursued his doctoral studies in the English Department of
Peking University in 1993 and was employed as an English teacher by
the department after graduation in 1996. He was promoted to
associate professor just a year later.
Huang, as chairman of the Labor Union of the Foreign Languages
School, was enthusiastic about public welfare and praised by his
colleagues for his behavior, the newspaper said.
"However, academic evaluation is different from moral
evaluation," said You Xiaoli, associate professor of Suzhou
University in eastern Jiangsu
Province. "As a scholar, Huang's academic credibility has
problems, which directly harms the credibility of his school and
university. Peking University is justified in penalizing him."
It is rare in China for a university to sack its teacher for
plagiarism, as previous practice shows that many plagiarizing
scholars still publish their papers and continue working as
professors, despite their scandals coming to light, said You.
"Plagiarism is one of the chronic illnesses of academic
corruption that is troubling Chinese academic circles, as several
such cases and famous scholars have been unmasked in recent years,"
said You, who is also a special commentator for the Beijing
News.
You blamed the existing imperfect academic evaluation system,
which puts more emphasis on how many books a scholar writes and how
many papers he or she publishes, as the root cause for academic
corruption.
However, China has stepped up efforts to fight academic
corruption this year, with the Ministry of Education publishing a
list of criteria in June on academic studies in the field of
philosophy and social sciences in higher institutions. This
involves many specific rules on writing academic papers and books
and on academic evaluation as well.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2004)