South Korean professor forced graduate students to write daughter’s thesis for entry into top dental school
- The academic made her graduate students conduct an experiment which her daughter then published in a journal under her own name
- The daughter then included the journal article in an application to Seoul National University’s dental school
The professor, who teaches at Seoul’s Sungkyunkwan University, made her graduate students conduct a three-month experiment – and even asked them to fabricate the results – before the daughter published the findings in an academic journal under her own name.
The daughter then included the thesis in an application to Seoul National University’s dental school – the top dental institution in the country – and earned admission last year.
In the latest case, the education ministry said it had asked prosecutors to investigate if any laws were broken.
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“The Education Ministry plans to ask her university to expel the professor,” an official said.
The investigation discovered the professor had one of her students do 54 hours of volunteer work – converting a book into Braille – in her daughter’s name, for which she was paid 500,000 won (US$440).