KU’s President Plagiarized: Report

The fact-finding committee of the Korea University professors’ association, which has been investigating suspicions of plagiarism cast on its new president Lee Pil-sang, announced on January 24, “After investigating the president’s papers and books, we concluded that the two papers under dispute were plagiarized, and in addition, there were three more of his works that had been copied from his students.”

On the other hand, President Lee’s students and the university authorities held a press meeting refuting the committee’s report.

An official in the committee said, “The situation is much more serious than all the fuss made by the media. Depending on further investigations, there can be as many as eight theses plagiarized.” He argued, “The results of the investigation are clear and indisputable. I don’t even think that a vote would be necessary at the professors’ council scheduled on January 26 when the final decision is to be made.”

The committee has reportedly made its provisional conclusion that the president committed plagiarism by either copying his students’ master’s theses or publishing them more than once, and this was informed verbally to Hyun Seung-jong, chairman of the university’s board of directors, and Lee.

The two dissertations under dispute were "Study on Term Structures of Bond Yields in Korea" and "Positive Research on Economic Gains of Currency Futures Regarding Foreign Loan Management," both issued in 1988. The three others are known to be “Analysis of Monetary Policy Effects on the Stock Market Returns,” “Analysis of Economic Effects According to the Introduction of Stock Index Futures Market,” and “Positive Research on Liquidity Effects under Conditional Heteroscedasticity.”

However, concerning the three papers which were additionally accused by the committee, four of President Lee’s students, Lee Seung-hwan, head of the office of external affairs and development, and Jeong Seok-woo, head of the office of university planning, held a press conference at the university’s Centennial Hall to refute the suspicions of plagiarism.

They said, “Lee showed his students his study drafts and papers that had already been published, and it was the students who developed their theses based on his work. Since Lee’s draft came up earlier than his students’ papers, it would be rather correct to say that the students have made use of Lee’s studies.”

Jeong Seok-woo said, “Although the committee has promised to keep the investigation secret and make the official announcement with final results, they were reported by the media earlier. This is making the committee’s intentions and fairness questionable.”

It has been known that in the meeting of the board of directors, held on January 15 after the committee verbally notified Lee Pil-sang and Hyun Seung-jong of the examination results, Lee gave an account of this matter and refused to accept the committee’s accusation.

Regarding the question whether Lee should resign, Hyun said, “We’re just watching the situation since this is in an academic controversy concerning papers, which is outside the foundation’s jurisdiction. We haven’t reached any conclusion yet so I cannot give you more comments.”

The fact-finding committee will express its opinions on Lee’s resignation on January 26 after the professors’ association holds its meeting, and the university will have a press meeting afterwards.

dnsp@donga.com