The
ThesisGate: An international PhD scandal involving Taiwan and U.K.
Hwan Lin（美國北卡大學經濟學系副教授）
Back in the 1980s, anyone holding a
doctorate got hired as an associate professor. This was particularly true for
those who earned their PhDs from foreign prestigious universities such as the
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). …Yet, in stark contrast, Ms. Tsai Ing-wen's initial employment in Taiwan's academia was a visiting
associate-professor position＊…This
irregularity contradicted Taiwan's university employment policy at least in the entire 1980s…
Ms. Tsai has long claimed that she was
awarded a law doctorate in 1984 at the London School of Economics and Political
Science. However, her student record says that she withdrew from the school's Mphil/PhD program on
November 10, 1982 for financial difficulties. So, how could Ms. Tsai be awarded
a PhD degree after she was no longer registered as an LSE student?
On one hand, she has been unable to show
the original document of her alleged PhD diploma. …Oddly, three different copies of her so-called “PhD diploma”
came to the fore in September, 2019…According to what the presidential office explained, one copy is a zerox-copy
of the original diploma that the office obtained from the LSE and the other two
copies are replacement diplomas. …
On the other hand, Ms. Tsai has been unable
to show where on earth her examined PhD thesis is. Back in the 1980s, to earn a
doctoral degree, it was required that any PhD candidate should pass an oral
examination (i.e. viva) and submit a final copy of her examined thesis to the University
of London's Senate
House Library and another copy to the University's IALS (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies)
Library for she was a law graduate. …However,
in the case of Ms. Tsai, such a final copy has been non-existent in the Senate
House and IALS Libraries, nor has the LSE Library. …
Surprisingly, on June 28, 2019, the LSE
Library received a facsimile copy of a so-called PhD thesis from Ms. Tsai and
this copy was bound into a black hard-cover book.
大意：早在1980年代的台灣，任何在外國著名大學取得博士學位的人都被聘為副教授，然而LSE的蔡英文一開始只取得客座副教授一職。蔡英文1982年不再註冊之後，如何獲得博士學位？在LSE要獲得法律專業的博士學位，應通過口試，並將其論文的最終版本提交給倫敦大學總圖和高等法律研究所的圖書館，但兩處都不存在蔡英文的論文。
＊ 編按：1983 / 84 蔡英文由 Lecturer 轉為 visiting associate-professor
Tsai
Ing-wen thesis sets off academic firestorm of controversy over “fake news”
versus censored truth
Michael Richardson（美國獨立撰稿人）
Somehow, Tsai was
able to obtain a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics despite not having
filed her thesis with the LSE Library, as did the 105 other graduate students
in her class. Researchers, wanting to know Tsai's
views, looked in vain for the thesis until finally the missing document
attracted media attention in June 2019. Tsai's
supporters blamed London libraries, scanning backlogs, and catalog mistakes.
After it became clear Tsai did not submit her thesis as required she made a
tardy submission by fax. Tsai also slapped a restricted access copyright limitation
on the thesis preventing copying the document.
Professor Hwan Lin,
a Taiwanese-American at Belk College in the United States, decided to do a
little research himself and issued a fifty-page report on the history of the
thesis, outlining a number of irregularities. Lin, who traveled to London and
visited the LSE Library, found the faxed thesis to be a draft version with
missing pages, page numbers that do not match the table of contents, and
handwritten corrections.
In Taipei, Professor
emeritus Ho De-fen of Taiwan National University picked up the quest for truth
questioning the validity of Tsai's
doctorate. Tsai responded to the challenge almost immediately on her personal
Facebook account and threatened Ho with legal action. Tsai called the questions
about her thesis “fake news” and said Ho was “factually incorrect.”
…Tsai said in her Facebook statement, “In
short, if I received my diploma, then I submitted my thesis.” Curiously, Tsai's diploma is a modern
re-issue, not the original award.
大意：和同屆其他的105名學生不同，蔡英文沒有向校方圖書館提交論文，仍以某種方式獲得博士學位。她在2019年6月才透過傳真提交論文，並設下種種限閱規定。親自看過論文的台裔美籍林環牆教授發表調查報告，認為提交的只是草稿，出現了漏頁、與目錄不符、手寫更正錯誤的狀況。台大教授賀德芬提出相關質疑後，蔡英文威脅要對此等抹黑採取法律行動。
Oxford
scholar publishes response paper to Taiwan president's LSE dissertation
Keoni Everington（台灣英文新聞記者）Hsu pointed out that Tsai's dissertation has not been available in the school's library since it was first published in 1983 until June of this year. The dissertation cannot be checked out, but it can be viewed in the LSE Women's Library Reading Room with certain restrictions, such as no photography of the pages or quoting of their contents and frequent monitoring by a librarian.
In the Acknowledgments section of the work, Tsai expresses her thanks to her mentor M.J. Elliott for her guidance and two other professors at the university who could not be named for legal reasons. She also expresses gratitude to a "Ms. S" for helping her print the paper with her amazing "typing ability."
The Oxford scholar also noticed a preponderance of words that used American English spelling. For example, on page 299 he noticed the word "analyze" rather than the British "analyse," and she wrote the American "subsidize" instead of the British "subsidise" on page 358.
In the case of Tsai's work, every chapter had a conclusion, but there was no "consistent general conclusion" for the entire document. He said that it read more like a series of independent short essays, with several pieces strung together to form larger sections, rather than a comprehensive, coherent work.
Hsu complained that the citations for each chapter were not placed in the page itself but marked with an asterisk plus a number. He said the source of each citation had to be searched for at the end of each chapter and that some authors and books mentioned did not appear in the bibliography.
※ Excerpt aus：
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3780029
大意：徐永泰博士在LSE婦女圖書館閱覽室中查看蔡英文論文的個人副本時發現，不能翻印拍照或引用內容。論文感謝頁中提到指導老師為 M. J. Elliott，並有人協助打字；內文經常使用美式英文；雖然每一章都有一個小結，但是沒有總結，很像是將獨立的短文串在一起；引文來源散見於各章末尾，而且某些提到的作者和書籍並未出現在書目裏。
University of London secrecy over Tsai Ing-wen PhD thesis nears decision in United Kingdom Freedom of Information lawsuit
Michael Richardson（美國獨立撰稿人）
（Elizabeth Denham, Information Commissioner for the United Kingdom,）maintains that disclosure of the examiner identities is not necessary because the validity President Tsai's PhD thesis“has been met to a extremely large degree”by three facts: the thesis is online, the thesis is listed in an index document, and the University of London claims it holds records of the viva examination.
Denham ignored an official email correspondence from the University's Senate House Library, dated October 9, 2019, which states:“It would seem from our card catalogue records that Senate House Library never received the original copies of this thesis from the External Examiners.”
Denham, relying on University of London assertions rather than on official records or correspondence...
...however, public relations statements and news reports do not constitute, in any manner, academic authentication or actual verification of a PhD thesis viva examination; nor does the indictment of Professor Peng constitute academic authentication or actual verification of the viva examination.
That personal data is subject to disclosure when the necessity of verification demands public examination as the safeguard against academic fraud such that one cannot be a secret student and obtain a secret degree from the University of London, thus the privacy of Tsai Ing-wen was breached by inclusion in the London School of Economics and Political Science student directory and by inclusion in the University of London list of graduates because of the necessity of verification; also, the identities of Tsai Ing-wen's teachers were breached by inclusion in the London School of Economics and Political Science faculty directory because of the necessity of verification; likewise, the identities of Tsai Ing-wen's thesis examiners demands disclosure because of the necessity of verification and Tsai should have had no expectation of privacy.
※ Excerpt aus：
https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2021/04/15/university-of-london-secrecy-over-tsai-ing-wen-phd-thesis-nears-decision-in-united-kingdom-freedom-of-information-lawsuit/
大意：英國資訊專員並未根據官方記錄來推斷蔡英文博士論文的真實性，僅是單純相信倫敦大學的說法。事實上，LSE的公關聲明和新聞報導並不算是學術認證，台灣檢方對於彭文正的起訴也沒辦法證明什麼。為了防止學術欺詐，如學生、教職員、口試委員的資料都需要核實，而且揭露口試委員身份原本就是英國的學術慣例。
Denham ignored an official email correspondence from the University's Senate House Library, dated October 9, 2019, which states:“It would seem from our card catalogue records that Senate House Library never received the original copies of this thesis from the External Examiners.”
Denham, relying on University of London assertions rather than on official records or correspondence...
...however, public relations statements and news reports do not constitute, in any manner, academic authentication or actual verification of a PhD thesis viva examination; nor does the indictment of Professor Peng constitute academic authentication or actual verification of the viva examination.
That personal data is subject to disclosure when the necessity of verification demands public examination as the safeguard against academic fraud such that one cannot be a secret student and obtain a secret degree from the University of London, thus the privacy of Tsai Ing-wen was breached by inclusion in the London School of Economics and Political Science student directory and by inclusion in the University of London list of graduates because of the necessity of verification; also, the identities of Tsai Ing-wen's teachers were breached by inclusion in the London School of Economics and Political Science faculty directory because of the necessity of verification; likewise, the identities of Tsai Ing-wen's thesis examiners demands disclosure because of the necessity of verification and Tsai should have had no expectation of privacy.
※ Excerpt aus：
https://richardsonreports.wordpress.com/2021/04/15/university-of-london-secrecy-over-tsai-ing-wen-phd-thesis-nears-decision-in-united-kingdom-freedom-of-information-lawsuit/
大意：英國資訊專員並未根據官方記錄來推斷蔡英文博士論文的真實性，僅是單純相信倫敦大學的說法。事實上，LSE的公關聲明和新聞報導並不算是學術認證，台灣檢方對於彭文正的起訴也沒辦法證明什麼。為了防止學術欺詐，如學生、教職員、口試委員的資料都需要核實，而且揭露口試委員身份原本就是英國的學術慣例。