Accusations of plagiarism in university elections fall on deaf ears

On the eve of the university elections, researcher Taulant Muka published two reports on Friday against the rector of the University of Tirana, Artan Hoxha and the dean of the Faculty of Law, Dorina Hoxha, whom he accuses of plagiarism with their doctoral theses.

According to Muka's reports, which have been sent to a number of institutions, including the President of the Republic, the rector and the dean have copied their doctoral theses, the first by a Romanian researcher and the second by Italian researchers.

"Mr. Hoxha, according to the findings of Annex no. 1, copied verbatim the idea, structure, thoughts and bibliography of Dr. Stănilă, treating it as an authentic/original work of his, without citing it, thus consuming a multitude of violations," says Muka in the report, adding that the doctoral thesis of the rector Artan Hoxha was copied by the Romanian researcher, Laura Maria Stanila.

Regarding the dean of the Faculty of Law, Muka claims that Hoxha copied about 4,000 words from two Italian researchers in her thesis, including, according to him, the idea, structure and bibliography.

Rector Artan Hoxha and Dean Dorina Hoxha are competing alone for another term in the university elections expected to be held on June 21.

In his reports, Muka says that "the two heads of the universities should have been excluded from the race" and requests that measures be taken to remove their titles. But his report was accompanied by silence from the University of Tirana and the Ministry of Education, while the rector Artan Hoxha denied the accusations in a communication with BIRN.

While emphasizing that the accusations were repeated, Hoxha insisted that he had not plagiarized, even though he admitted that the part about foreign legislation was not his study. Hoxha emphasized, however, that his study of over 200 pages was original in terms of Albanian legislation.

"I don't enter into debate about things that are there... Mistakes and plagiarism are two things," Hoxha told BIRN.

"There may be problems with references on foreign legislation, but they are not my scientific research," he added, while mentioning that he had "hands on 50 percent of Albanian legislation."

The Ministry of Education did not respond to BIRN's questions for comment until the publication of this article, while members of the Academic Senate of the University of Tirana, to which the report was sent, were unavailable for comment. Dean Dorina Hoxha did not respond to BIRN's questions.

The chairman of the Council of Ethics at the University of Tirana, Mihallaq Qirjo, told BIRN that the council was not set in motion by the Senate or other complainants, while adding that the Council of Ethics did not perform actions mainly.

Although denunciations of plagiarism in the Albanian academic circle have been frequent, they have been overlooked and have not been accompanied by penalties or removal of scientific titles.

Rigels Xhemollari from "Civic Attitude", an organization focused on monitoring the work of universities, says that the title verification procedure has not been completed and that the universities refuse to make public the candidates' self-declarations.

Xhemollari also added that the only initiative to verify scientific titles, undertaken after pressure from the student protest in 2018, has failed.

"We are no longer dealing with an isolated case, but with a phenomenon, which does not harm the individual or the university, but harms the image of Albania in the European Union and requires emergency treatment by the competent structures. We cannot ask for funds with leaders who steal texts", said Xhemollari for BIRN.

The verification of the scientific works of the academic staff at the University of Tirana was one of the main demands of the students in the mass protests of 2018. The government promised them that this verification would be carried out. Then the Ministry of Education concluded an agreement with an electronic platform that would enable this verification, but the process was not followed and did not produce results. In 2020, the ministry transferred the verification obligations to the university itself, but since the year when this initiative was taken, there has been no case of plagiarism caught by the institutions.

Rigels Xhemollari from "Civic Attitude" told BIRN that plagiarism was a criminal offense, despite the fact that the legislation requires a report from the researcher or the author of the copied text. He also emphasized that higher education in Albania needs an academic vetting.

"To clean oneself and to open the race and competition within oneself", concluded Xhemollari./Reporter.al