The Organization for the Improvement of Quality in Education (ORCA) has requested the dismissal and removal of academic science titles for professors Ardian Kastrati and Bujar Dugolli, after the Ethics Council at the University of Pristina decided that both of them obtained the titles through plagiarism.
According to Dibran Hoxha from ORCA, the journal in which the professors had published the papers has removed the publications. Through a symbolic action in front of the Faculty of Philosophy, this organization demanded the dismissal of two professors.
However, the Ethics Council has not decided on dismissal. On June 16, the EC punished Dugolli by denying involvement in mentoring in the cycle of master's and doctoral studies for two years. The measure applies only to new candidates and not to candidates who are currently under mentoring. Kastrati has been denied involvement in mentoring at all levels of study at UP for three years.
The Ethics Council has said that the fact of the publication being removed from the journal is "an indisputable fact that the published article did not meet the academic and scientific standards to be published in a journal with international credibility".
"Tomorrow marks 1 year since ORCA's first public denunciation of the plagiarism of two professors of the Faculty of Philosophy, Bujar Dugollit and Ardian Kastrati. Both professors used the work with plagiarism content by stealing from different sources and through this theft they rose to higher positions", said Hoxha on Wednesday, EO reports. "The journal has responded to ORCA by ascertaining and verifying the plagiarism of the work of professors Dugolli and Kastrati. Their response states that the title will be immediately removed from the journal and that the journal's policies do not allow plagiarism in any form, and consequently the paper has been removed from the journal, proving beyond any doubt that the professors' paper contains plagiarism."
While Kastrati has been unapproachable in KOĖA's calls, Dugolli has said that "this is deliberate propaganda".
"I have given the clarifications regarding this. The degree of what is known as similarity is certain, but there has been no professional assessment of plagiarism. This is a bi-authored article and we have sent the errors to the Ethics Council. The Ethics Council has fallen under the influence of ORCA's malicious propaganda. From a professional point of view, no one has taken the evidence we sent them as a basis. It is an unprofessional and unfair decision for me because they are not true. I clarified that the errors identified by Kastrati are not mine. Punishment is unacceptable to me. They have not considered analyzing the similarities. Although they have this information behind them, they decided on such an unfair decision. The council has decided to be influenced by rector Sahiti and ORCA", said Dugolli.
