Norwegian minister resigns over plagiarism allegations

The Norwegian minister of research and higher education, Sandra Borch, has stepped down amid a plagiarism controversy concerning her master’s thesis.

Borch announced her resignation at a press conference on 19 January, after an X (formerly Twitter) user under the name @OsloStudenten posted a thread comparing the text of her 2014 thesis in jurisprudence with work by several other students. Ms Borch’s thesis, which she completed at UiT The Arctic University of Norway, appeared to have used passages from other publications without credit.

Subsequently, the Norwegian business newspaper E24 published an investigation alleging uncredited replication by Ms Borch of work by two students: the University of Oslo’s Charlotte Øistad, who completed a master’s thesis in 2005, and the University of Bergen’s Alexander Danielsen, who submitted a master’s thesis in 2009.

E24 went on to report that 21.9 per cent of Borch’s thesis was unoriginal, with six prior assignments plagiarised, according to analysis performed using the program Copyleaks.

At the press conference, Ms Borch acknowledged that she had “[taken] text from other assignments without stating the source”, apologising for making “a big mistake” for which she took “full responsibility”.

The decision to resign was her own, she said, explaining that she could not be responsible for exam regulations in light of her “error”.

Prime minister Jonas Gahr Støre later said Borch had made “the right decision” because she could no longer command the “trust” needed to carry out the role of higher education minister. Commending Ms Borch’s “important work” in the government, he said a new minister would be put in place imminently.

Ms Borch’s resignation comes after the ministry of education appealed against a verdict in favour of a former student at the Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, who was accused of self-plagiarism and excluded for two terms.

When the Borgating Court of Appeal found in the student’s favour, the higher education newspaper Khrono reported, Ms Borch said the ministry would take the case to the Supreme Court to “clarify important legal issues”.

Finance student Kristoffer Rytterager, who told Khrono he was the person behind the @OsloStudenten account, said he was inspired to investigate Ms Borch’s thesis in part by the INN student’s case.

“Consider the student who was accused of self-plagiarism, first banned from the course, then taken to the Supreme Court by an education minister who should have had the motto ‘Do as I say, not as I do’,” Mr Rytterager wrote on X in Norwegian. “Perhaps it is time for those who are responsible for learning and integrity to start learning a little about integrity?”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com