Education Minister Sorin Cîmpeanu announced he would resign on Thursday after an investigative journalist published an article accusing him of plagiarizing a university course he tought, becoming the second minister to step down in less than a year after plagiarism allegations.
The minister made no mention of the allegations and political fallout and said he was stepping down “on my own initiative.”
He said it had been “an opportunity and an honor for me to start to reform the education system right from the bottom.”
Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca accepted Cimpeanu’s resignation. He has also been accused of plagiarism on parts of his doctorate on military science, allegations he denies.
Investigative journalist Emilia Sercan who has built her career on exposing high-level plagiarism and fraudulent PhDs, on Monday published an article accusing the minister of plagiarizing a university course in 2006.
She claimed he appropriated 13 chapters which were the work of two other authors at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine.
The report claimed the minister plagiarized 92 pages by posing as the author of the respective sections of the university course.
Seeking to defend his almost two year mandate and in an apparent bid to avoid further scrutiny, Mr. Cimpeanu, 54, said:
“I started my mandate during an unprecedented health crisis, and I fought for children to physically go to school. I fought constantly and I managed to ensure the legal framework for spending on education to increase,” he said on Facebook.
He defended his term as minister saying the ‘Educated Romania’ project was „the best chance for the kind of education we all want. Without free and fair access to a quality education, there will be people who don’t understand the content and don’t understand the real meaning of the word.”
Romania’s minister of innovation and digitalization Florin Roman stepped down in December 2021 following a journalism investigation that found major irregularities on his resume and evidence he plagiarized from an academic paper.
Romanian minister resigns over allegations of plagiarism and faking university he graduated from
