Judge upholds university’s right to rescind master’s degree over plagiarism
CALGARY — An Alberta judge says the University of Calgary can rescind a master’s degree awarded to a student 15 years ago before allegations he plagiarized parts of his thesis.
John Measor was awarded a master of arts degree by the University of Calgary in 2003.
But prior to defending his thesis in 2002, an examination committee raised a concern regarding plagiarism. He was directed to remove the plagiarism and successfully defended it.
Some 10 years later, Measor was teaching at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax when the institution requested a copy of Measor’s master’s thesis, “Canada and the Imposition of Sanctions on Iraq: 1990-2002.” It ran the thesis through a plagiarism detection program and reported the results to the University of Calgary.