Parliament on Thursday approved a draft amendment that will make it possible to withdraw academic degrees. The amendment stipulates when a degree can be withdrawn, under what circumstances and who should decide on this. The amendment will not allow academic degrees to be withdrawn retroactively, however. It will take effect as of the beginning of 2021, so it will not apply to diploma theses submitted by students after January of the following year. That means none of the politicians that were accused of plagiarism will have to give up their titles. The cases include Parliamentary Chairman Boris Kollar as well as Prime Minister Igor Matovic.
The amendment introduces the principle that "academic degrees are withdrawn by those who granted them". In line with the new rules, a university rector will decide whether a qualification can be deemed invalid "if it can be proven that a final thesis or part of it wasn't prepared by the graduate, or if the graduate intentionally used part of another thesis or even copied it whole and thus gained an advantage that helped them to complete their studies".
The amendment will also allow people to give up their academic degrees. A private individual will be able to do so via a written notice with an officially certified signature submitted to the rector of the university that awarded the degree.
