– My clients are now using the time to assess whether they should appeal the decision, writes Kjerkol’s lawyer Marianne Klausen in an email to NTB.
The decision to cancel her master’s thesis from 2021 can be appealed to the national body Felles Klagenenmnd.
When the decision of the Board for Student Affairs at Nord University became known, a number of media referred to the latest plagiarism check that was carried out. This shows that there is a text overlap of 43 per cent distributed over 461 text blocks.
NTB also referred to this plagiarism check. Within a few days, however, it became clear that it does not say that the master’s thesis from Kjerkol and a fellow student is 43 percent plagiarized from other sources.
– Heavy load
The check was made following the media had started writing regarding the master’s thesis, and thus also includes coincidences between text in the master’s thesis and text written regarding the master’s thesis in the media. The plagiarism check, which was carried out in 2021 following the thesis was submitted, showed 19 per cent text overlap with other sources.
Kjerkol himself has commented on this on social media and clarified that the tribunal worked based on the proportion of text similarities found in the original plagiarism check in 2021.
– The coverage of the case, and especially the media’s uncritical focus on the text similarity in the master’s thesis, has been a great burden for my clients, Klausen writes.
She is strongly critical of the fact that the media chose to emphasize the figure 43 per cent. She is not alone there.
– Misleading
Eilif Nordahl, who heads the Board for Student Affairs at Nord University, confirmed earlier this week that the text similarity of 43 per cent does not indicate real plagiarism.
– One of the authors of the master’s thesis thought the claim of 43 percent text similarity was misleading. I have confirmed that, says Nordahl.
At the same time, he emphasizes that the plagiarism check from 2024 was not emphasized in the tribunal’s assessment.
– This plagiarism check is also not emphasized by the tribunal. It provides hits on a number of passages that were referenced in various media. Such matches do not indicate plagiarism, he says.
– Not read well enough
When asked why this was not clarified by the tribunal earlier, he says that the tribunal pointed out the point when they were asked regarding it.
– The plagiarism report from 2024 is not referred to in the tribunal’s justification. Then you have not read the protocol well enough, says Nordahl.
The plagiarism check was nevertheless mentioned at the beginning of the protocol because it was one of the documents the tribunal received from the university in the case.
– It is part of the facts, but as mentioned, not emphasized in the tribunal’s assessment of the case.
Klausen says she tried to explain to interested media what the text similarity meant, and that the discovery of text similarity is not the same as the student having cheated.
– Some journalists were interested and nuanced their coverage of the case. Other media were unfortunately dismissive.
Academic disagreement
The appeal board at Nord University has concluded that Kjerkol and the fellow student committed cheating, which members of a commission that assessed Kjerkol’s thesis have criticized.
– In our view, it is important that several of the assessments made by the committee at Nord University do not become guidelines for work with plagiarism cases nationally. A debate is needed here, said commission member Lars Klemsdal Chrono Wednesday.
Kjerkol’s lawyer did not answer questions from NTB regarding how her client has reacted to the fact that the prime minister relied on the tribunal’s conclusion that it had been deliberately cheated, despite the fact that the commission has concluded otherwise.
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2024-04-19 21:07:34
