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Committee to examine Esben Lunde Larsen's PhD for plagiarism

Practice Committee at the University of Copenhagen to evaluate whether Education and research minister's dissertation had elements that were plagiarised and self plagiarised

The Practice Committee at the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is to determine whether Denmark’s education and research minister Esben Lunde Larsen has written his PhD thesis according to good scientific practice. This is according to the Faculty of Theology’s page on ku.dk.

The Dean of the Faculty of Theology has opened the case after the Swedish company Urkund had delivered to the faculty a digital analysis of his dissertation that showed several examples of plagiarism and self-plagiarism.

“Our examination will evaluate whether the thesis complies with the standards of good scientific practice, but there is no answer key in this area. The evaluation will include the scope, nature, and context of plagiarism,” says Dean Kirsten Busch Nielsen.

May not have cited sources

After the Practice Committee will have examined Larsen’s PhD thesis, the Dean will assess how the university should respond.

”I have forwarded the case to the Practice Committee, which usually deals with this type of cases at the university. It has broad experience in the field. They will assess the case based on the continuing discussions on standards and requirements for such papers,” says Kirsten Busch Nielsen.

Swedish company Urkund found five texts with no cited sources about Grundtvig’s concept of freedom. The texts were written by Esben Lunde Larsen himself. Furthermore, they found content similarities with two other authors that were not referenced in Larsen’s thesis.

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