Opposition leaders urge restraint over Sinkevičius plagiarism findings

Lithuanian opposition figures have urged against politicising findings of academic misconduct in Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius’s dissertation, LRT reported. The university’s ethics commission found significant violations, including instances of plagiarism, and ordered him to correct the work within six months.

Conservative leader Laurynas Kasčiūnas said Sinkevičius should follow the findings of the ethics commission at ISM University of Management and Economics and revise his dissertation, but cautioned against turning the matter into a political fight.

“I hope that correcting his dissertation will not interfere with his direct work,” Kasčiūnas told ELTA. “I do not think we need to bring dissertation wars into politics.”

Liberal leader Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen said the confirmed suspicions reflected poorly on the prime minister but were unlikely to have significant political consequences. She said Sinkevičius would need to devote time to making the required corrections and restoring his academic reputation.

Social Democrat Jurgita Šukevičienė, chair of the parliamentary Committee on Education and Science, said she did not believe the findings required Sinkevičius to take political responsibility. She did not dispute that shortcomings had been identified, but said they appeared mainly related to citations and the attribution of sources, rather than plagiarism.

The ethics commission found significant breaches involving academic writing, citations and source attribution, including plagiarism. It concluded that Sinkevičius had violated the university’s principle that a dissertation must be independently written.

The findings follow public debate over the dissertation, which Sinkevičius defended at the university in 2015 and which was not initially available in Lithuania’s electronic theses and dissertations system. After questions were raised, he agreed to make the work public; the university said it was uploaded on July 16.