New education law abolishes CNATDCU, the key institution dealing with the analysis of plagiarism / PM Ciucă will escape CNATDCU scrutiny if the law enters into force

CNATDCU, the National Council for the Accreditation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates, the essential institution in the analysis of plagiarism is abolished through reorganization and loss of specific powers, in the Draft Law on Higher Education, a document that has the official approval of President Klaus Iohannis and which has been put up for public debate, according to Edupedu.ro.

Minister Cîmpeanu is proposing the abolition of the CNATDCU as a decision-making body on doctoral plagiarism in the midst of the plagiarism scandal involving Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă. It should be recalled that the head of the executive blocked the analysis of his doctoral thesis in court. Ciucă obtained the annulment, in court, of the requests submitted to the CNADTCU for the verification of suspicions regarding his doctoral thesis, so if the solution remains final and the current form of the bill enters into force, the Prime Minister’s doctoral thesis will only be able to be verified by the Carol I National Defence University, headed by General Dorin Corneliu Pleșcan who in May 2022 was passed into the reserve by President Klaus Iohannis and promoted to the rank of Major General – with two stars. Pleșcan is the former chief of staff of Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucă when he was chief of the General Staff.

It should be noted that the Cîmpeanu draft law stipulates that plagiarism cases currently examined by the CNATDCU should be dealt with by the same institution, based on the current rules, as the law does not provide for retroactivity in this matter. Specifically, in the draft law on higher education, Article 145, paragraph 7 proposes „(7) Complaints regarding the existence of plagiarism, pending before the National Council for the Accreditation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates shall be resolved by applying the legal provisions in force at the date of the complaint”.

However, in Ciucă’s case, the new law will apply because the old complaints about his alleged plagiarism were annulled by Judge Marius Iosif. This means that Ciucă practically escapes the threat of CNATDCU, an institution that has remained independent of political influence.

„The university research council and the council for the certification of university diplomas and degrees, i.e. precisely those councils involved in the development and implementation of key policies in the fields of research and human resources management, have been abolished”, warned in an analysis for Edupedu.ro the prominent sociologist Lazăr Vlăsceanu, who is currently part of the CNATDCU board.

Today’s proposed execution of the institution is reminiscent of the move made in 2012 by the interim Minister of Education at the time, Liviu Pop, who dismantled the CNATDCU through reorganization on the very day that the institution headed at the time by Marius Andruh (now vice president of the CNATDCU) officially announced the verdict of plagiarism in the thesis of then Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

The draft Higher Education Law was put up for public debate by Minister Sorin Cîmpeanu on 13 July 2022, in the form of a package of laws officially called „Draft Education Laws – ” Educated Romania”. The launch of the debate comes after several consultations on the drafts by President Klaus Iohannis, who has repeatedly promised that his „Educated Romania” report will become law.

The abolition of the CNATDCU by „diffuse” reorganization is made in Article 142 of the draft Higher Education Law, in the chapter entitled „Consultative Commissions of the Ministry of Education”, which details the powers of each commission. Although other commissions, such as CNFIS, CNSPIS, are maintained even with the same title in the draft new education law, CNATDCU disappears completely, and its prerogatives in the field of granting doctoral degrees and managing plagiarism in doctoral theses are transferred to the universities, according to Article 157 of the draft law.

The abolition of the National Council for the Accreditation of University Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates (CNATDCU) as the institution that manages plagiarism in PhDs has also been raised by student representatives. „We express our disagreement in principle with the initiative of the Ministry of Education to eliminate the CNATDCU’s powers in the area of granting doctoral degrees and habilitation certificates”, reacted the National Alliance of Romanian Student Organisations (ANOSR).

Traducere: Ovidiu H.