Germany's Ph.D. Scandal: Were Degrees Bought?

• Germany's Ph.D. Scandal: Were Degrees Bought?
  
  By Tristana Moore / Berlin Friday, Aug. 28, 2009, Time.com
  "Getting a Ph.D. is the pinnacle of academic achievement, but appears that some aspiring students in Germany may have bribed their way to the top. On Aug. 22, German prosecutors revealed that they are investigating around 100 academics at some of the country's top universities on the suspicion that they granted doctorates to dozens of unqualified students after taking bribes from a consultancy firm. The scandal has shaken Germany's higher education system, revered abroad as one of the best in Europe.
  
  
  The investigation follows a raid on an academic consultancy called the Institute for Scientific Counselling in the western town of Bergisch Gladbach in March 2008. At the time, the authorities uncovered a mine of information pointing to illegal activity and confiscated thousands of files, including contracts between the firm and lecturers, and evidence of bank transfers. Prosecutors in the city of Cologne say the institute helped doctoral candidates find a supervisor and paid lecturers to take on Ph.D. students. "Some Ph.D. students paid up to $30,000 to get their doctor titles," Günther Feld, a senior prosecutor in Cologne tells TIME. "Many people had received mediocre results in exams and they weren't eligible to do a Ph.D. in the first place." ... continue reading
  
  See also: Germany: 100 professors suspected of Ph.D. bribes (AP): here