A woman named as Police Academy rector. Interior Ministry denounces “formal checks” on plagiarised PhD theses

Police chief commissioner Veronica Stoica has been appointed the new rector the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” Police Academy, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Monica Dajbog has announced on Wednesday.

The rector position has been vacant after rector and pro-rector of the Police Academy, Adrian Iacob and Mihail Marcoci had resigned in May over the plagiarised PhD thesis scandal and after journalist Emilia Sercan had been threatened in this case. The two former Police Academy chiefs are suspect of having plagiarised their doctoral theses and are also investigated by the anti-corruption prosecutors in the threat case of Sercan.

“One of the criteria that led to the nomination of Veronica Stoica as rector was there were no suspicions on her PhD title. Mrs. Stoica has got her PhD title 20 years ago at the Law Faculty of the University of Bucharest. The new rector thus enjoys a good reputation in the academic environment, as she has a rich activity on law and scientific research,” said the Interior Ministry spokesperson.

Veronica Stoica has been pro-rector since January 2018 and she has been art the helm of the Police Academy since May 24, this year.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry has also presented on Wednesday the first conclusions of the investigation in the plagiarised PhD theses scandal. More precisely, the Interior ministry is accusing the two former chiefs of the academy they had sent false reports on the checks regarding PhD theses to the ministry’s leadership.

The ministry’s Control Body says that only half of the reported PhD theses had been actually checked, while many issues were covered up.

“The first finding of the Control Body was that only formal decisions had been taken at the Police Academy on investigating the existence of plagiarised PhD theses during 2011-2018, namely the doctoral theses of the top management staff members. The investigation of those PhD theses has not been on a regular basis, but only when reports were asked by the Interior Ministry,” said the ministry’s spokesperson, Monica Dajbog.