Lithuanian Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius on Tuesday rejected allegations of plagiarism in his doctoral dissertation, saying he wrote the thesis independently and remained confident in the academic process that led to his degree.
“I am completely calm. I defended it publicly, I wrote it myself, and no one raised any issues with me 11 years ago,” Sinkevičius told reporters at the government headquarters.
“I believe that even if some minor inaccuracies have been identified now, we can all make mistakes, but they should not be fundamental,” he added.
Questions about Sinkevičius’ dissertation have circulated on social media in recent weeks, with the latest allegations claiming that passages from other authors’ works were presented without proper attribution.
Sinkevičius suggested the scrutiny was linked to his recent appointment as prime minister.
“The interest in my personal life, my academic work, my professional career and my professional path has apparently intensified. Perhaps this is part of the process for anyone taking up such a position,” he said.
ISM University of Management and Economics, where Sinkevičius earned his doctorate in 2015, said it does not plan to review the dissertation.
“We trust the decision made by the scholars and do not plan to review the defended dissertation,” the university said in a statement provided to BNS.
It said a doctoral degree is awarded only after all academic requirements have been met and noted that the dissertation was assessed according to the academic standards in place at the time.
The university acknowledged that “methodological inaccuracies may occur in any academic work,” but said public opinions or assessments alone are not grounds under international academic practice to question the decision of the dissertation defence committee.
According to ISM, Sinkevičius’ dissertation was evaluated by an international defence panel comprising scholars from ISM, Copenhagen Business School, Vilnius University and Kaunas University of Technology.
Sinkevičius earned a bachelor’s degree in management and business administration from Vilnius University in 2007, a bachelor’s degree in law from Mykolas Romeris University in 2008, a master’s degree in marketing and management from ISM in 2009, and completed his doctorate at the same university in 2015.
Newsletter
Every Friday morning.
