Hungarian president Schmitt loses doctorate

The Hungarian president Pal Schmitt has lost his doctorate. It has been taken away from him by the Hungarian Semmelweis University because Schmitt has copied large parts of his dissertation, written in 1992, from other articles.

Schmitt wrote his dissertation on the history of the Olympics.

Rector Tivadar Tulassay says the decision of withdrawing Schmitt’s doctorate has been made because his dissertation does not meet the professional and ethical requirements of scientific work.

According to the research committee, consisting of four professors and a lawyer, more than two hundred of 215 pages of his dissertation are either direct translations or showed partial similarities with other works.

The opposition has requested the resignation of Schmitt. Schmitt refused and stated on the Hungarian state television that he will be writing a new dissertation, to prove he can in fact meet the academic standard of quality.