10 High-Profile People Whose Degrees Were Revoked

10 High-Profile People Whose Degrees Were Revoked

Universities can revoke degrees if they discover cheating or other irregularities.

Although college and graduate school alumni may assume their diplomas are set in stone, there's no such thing as "no backsies" when it comes to college conferrals, as Joel McHale's character on the television show Community knows. McHale plays Jeff Winger, a lawyer who enrolls in community college after his degree is revoked. School administratorsâ€"both on television and in real lifeâ€"seem to think of the degrees they dole out like driver's licenses, which can be suspended or revoked for bad behavior. 

In 1918, University of Pennsylvania trustees struck two honorary degree holders from its record for their activities in World War I: Germany's kaiser and its ambassador to the United States and Mexico. 

More recently, some schools have resisted pressure to recall certain degrees. Last February, University of St. Andrews chose not to withdraw Fred Goodwin's honorary doctorate, despite his role in the collapse of the Royal Bank of Scotland. The London School of Economics and Political Science also decided recently to let Muammar Qadhafi's son Saif al-Islam, who has been indicted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, keep his Ph.D. 

Here are 10 high-profile cases of universities in the United States and abroad stripping alumni of their academic degrees. 

1. Gaming Olympics studies: In April 2012, Pál Schmitt resigned as president of Hungary a week after his doctorate was withdrawn by Semmelweis University in Budapest. According to a BBC report, Semmelweis accused Schmitt, a two-time Olympic fencing gold medalist, of plagiarizing entire passages of his doctoral thesis. There was at least partial copying on nearly 200 pages of Schmitt's 215-page thesis, according to a Semmelweis committee. 

[Read about how university-verified badges vouch for students and alumni.] 

2. Defenseless minister: Although Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the former German defense minister, seemed to be heir-apparent to Chancellor Angela Merkel, he resigned on March 1, 2011 after admitting to plagiarizing parts of his legal doctorate. Universität Bayreuth revoked his degree, citing "serious errors" in his paper. 

Guttenberg isn't the only German politician to be punished by his alma mater. Two members of the European Parliament also lost their degrees due to plagiarism: University of Heidelberg revoked Silvana Koch-Mehrin's doctorate, and Jorgo Chatzimarkakis lost his doctorate from University of Bonn. 

3. Pharmaceutical power: In 2008, the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University announced that it was revoking the E.M.B.A. it had awarded Heather Bresch, the daughter of Joe Manchin III, then West Virginia's governor.