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)