Publication: Sapa Issued: Hildesheim, Germany Date: 2008-04-02 Reporter: Sapa

"Campus Casanova" Law Professor Jailed in Doctorates Scandal

 

Publication 

Sapa
BC-GERMANY-PROFESSOR-JAIL
Issued Hildesheim, Germany
Reporter Sapa
Date

2008-04-02
 

A professor of law at a German university was sentenced to three years in prison on Wednesday for receiving money from students wanting to obtain doctorates.

A court in the city of Hildesheim found the 53-year-old guilty on 68 counts of corruption. The professor admitted to receiving Euro 153 750 from a consultancy which recommended the students to him.

The money was paid between October 1996 and May 2005 in exchange for the man accepting the students as doctoral candidates although they did not meet the necessary academic requirements.

Of the 68 students accepted by the professor, only 10 went on to obtain the title of doctor.

The professor, who taught law at Leibnitz University in the city of Hanover, said he acted out of financial considerations because he was heavily in debt at the time.

During an earlier hearing, a female student of the professor was fined 1,800 euros (2,640 dollars) for trading sexual favours for inflated marks that landed her a plum job at the university.

The unnamed 30-year-old admitted to having had a five-year sexual relationship with the man, dubbed the "Campus Casanova" by the media.

Convicting the woman of corruption, the court found she had unfairly profited from her relationship with the professor to gain the post of assistant at the law faculty.

The 52-year-old head of the consultancy is also facing trial for corruption.

The consultancy is also alleged to have earned large sums through the transactions - up to Euro 22 000 for a single doctorate - from lawyers aiming to increase their standing by having the title of doctor.

The problem is said to be widespread in Germany, where academic degrees are particularly highly regarded *1.

With acknowledgements to Sapa.


*1       It is so ironic - the degrees are so sought after that people pay money to get them, after which they lose their true value and eventually their fiscal value.

That countrypeople, is why I read other peoples' doctoral theses from time to time in my spare time.

At this present time I have two on my plate, one in law and one in political "science".

I wonder whether Professors Viktor Verijenko and Others have considered the fruits of their labours.

In this German case, both supervisor and student received criminal sanction, the student a small fine and the supervisor 3 years of incarceration.

But in the Verijenko case his student was the Department of Defence's Chief of Acquisition and accounting officer for a massive budget.

The student's employer also funded the bogus doctorate using taxpayers' monies.

Taxpayers' monies were also used to make post-doctoral financial awards to thew student and to the supervisor.

Is this what is known in the Public Finance Management Act as "wasted expenditure" as opposed to what German and French armaments manufacturers term "useful expenditures" when dealing with Chiefs of Acquisition and Chairpeople of Ministers Committees?

Vat hulle.