Image: APA/Helmut Fohringer
According to several media reports, the commission set up to review the allegations came to this verdict. Aschbacher, who resigned two years ago in the wake of the allegations, is therefore allowed to keep her doctorate. The expert Stefan Weber, known as a “plagiarism hunter”, had raised the allegations against the former minister. He also identified a lack of knowledge of German, and it was above all places that became known in which a “Forbes” article was translated into German: “Assumptions are like barnacles on the side of a boat; they slow us down.” Aschbacher herself had defended herself by saying that she had written both her diploma thesis and her dissertation “to the best of my knowledge and belief”.
The University of Applied Sciences (FH) Wiener Neustadt had also previously discontinued the proceedings against Aschbacher’s thesis. Although an expert opinion had identified “deficiencies in compliance with the standards of good scientific practice”, it did not determine the intention to deceive necessary for the title to be revoked. This allows her to keep her master’s degree.
Source: Nachrichten
