Writer Jiang Fangzhou has master's degree revoked over academic misconduct

Renmin University of China announced on Monday that it has revoked the master's degree of well-known Chinese writer Jiang Fangzhou — a 2019 graduate from the university's School of Liberal Arts — following an investigation into newly emerged evidence of alleged academic misconduct in her graduation thesis.

After receiving new clues online, the university immediately formed an investigative panel consisting of several renowned experts from both within and outside the institution. The panel conducted a thorough review through literature tracing, comparative analysis, formal inquiries, and hearings of the respondent's statements.

The investigation found that Jiang's master's thesis contained nine instances of textual overlap with an overseas journal article, without proper citation or reference listing.

The university decided to revoke her master's degree in accordance to relevant laws and regulations.

This latest decision comes just over a week after an earlier university statement on July 5, which had found "academic irregularities" in Jiang's thesis, but stopped short of concluding that the case constituted serious misconduct warranting degree revocation. The earlier probe, triggered by a complaint from Tsinghua University philosophy professor Xiao Ying, had identified multiple citation errors.

The university said it will take this case as a lesson to further strengthen academic integrity, improve thesis quality management, reinforce education on academic ethics, and firmly uphold the seriousness and authority of academic norms.

In a post issued by Jiang on Sina Weibo on Monday, she said she accepted the university's handling of the case.

She apologized to her readers who are disturbed and disappointed by the incident and to her supervisor who has received punishment because of the incident.

In the July 5 statement, the university said it has suspended Jiang's supervisor from graduate admissions for one year and summoned the leadership of the School of Liberal Arts and ordered the school to undertake corrective measures.