A professor was removed from his post at China's prestigious Tsinghua University earlier this month for faking his academic achievements and work experience.
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China's Ministry of Education confirmed this on Monday and Wang Xuming, the ministry's spokesman, said: "According to China's law on higher education, colleges and universities are empowered to employ and dismiss personnel."
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In November 2005, Fang Zhouzi, who is known for exposing academic scandal in China, claimed that professor Liu Hui of Tsinghua University had listed a paper by a US-based professor with similar initials, namely "Liu H", in his resume when he applied for a job at the university's college of medicine.
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Fang also questioned the validity of Liu's claim that he had previously been a director of a research center with a US-based medical school between 1999 and 2004. Fang alleged that although Liu had worked in a laboratory in the US, he was not a leader of any kind.
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Liu, who was accepted by Tsinghua in June 2004, admitted that the paper was not his own, but denied any wrongdoing blaming a misprint by the library's data retrieval system.
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After further investigation, university authorities decided to sack 47-year-old Liu on March 10, according to the university's two relevant regulations on academic fraud and staff management.
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The Ministry of Education has decided to enhance academic discipline by setting up a special commission to monitor academic fraud and plagiarism in the near future. But no decision has been made on when this will be done.

(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2006)