University of Madras withdraws guideship of professor

Chennai: After finding out that 90 per cent of the thesis was plagiarised, the University of Madras has decided to withdraw the guideship of professor T.Santhanam from D.G. Vaishnav College in Chennai at the syndicate meeting held here on Thursday. Earlier, the university declined to give approval for his appointment as principal of the college following the plagiarism complaint against him.

“As a result of the decision, the professor cannot guide any PhD students and his existing students will be transferred to other guides,” university officials said.
Regina Vincent from Korattur in Chennai had filed a complaint with the university alleging that Santhanam has plagiarised his PhD thesis by copying important chapters from another thesis submitted by a US research scholar at Arizona State University.

“The university has sent the thesis to the subject expert to verify the claims in the complaint. In his report, the subject expert said that the thesis was plagiarised over 90 per cent. Following the discussion in the syndicate, we have decided to withdraw his guideship,” officials said. Meanwhile, the university also gave approval for the appointment of R.Ganesan as the new principal of DG Vaishnav College on Thursday.

“Mr Santhanam has copied core chapters of his PhD thesis namely, third, fourth and fifth chapters from the thesis titled 'The Validation of a Computer Simulation Model Using Spectral Analysis' by John Witherspoon Gowens II who had submitted the thesis for the doctoral degree in business administration,” she alleged in the complaint which was filed after 16 years of getting his PhD from University of Madras. Professor Santhanam got his PhD in Computer Science for his thesis titled as ‘The Validation of a Computer Simulation model Using Spectral Analysis’.

Exam fee down: Among other decisions, the university has decided to bring down the increase in the examination fee around 50 per cent following the objection by the chancellor's office. As per the hike proposed by the university, for UG theory paper the fee was increased from Rs 65 to Rs 100 and now it was brought down to Rs 85. For PG theory exams, the proposed hike was Rs 120 to Rs 175. Now, the hike was brought down to Rs 150. Likewise, the proposed hike in the practical exams also brought down by nearly 50%.

“The university is not getting any funds from the state or central governments. In that case, the university should be allowed to increase the exam fees to meet its expenditures. The fee was increased after so many years and that too was being objected and brought down. It will not help the university which is facing a financial crisis,” professors pointed out. After nearly, two and half years, the university has also approved the promotion for 12 faculty members under Career Advancement Scheme (CAS).