Harvard University President Faces Fresh Plagiarism Allegations

Harvard University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world, is faced with an embarrassing development. Its president Dr Claudine Gay, already under fire over possible plagiarism, is facing more such allegations. According to New York Times (NYT), the university has found at least two additional instances in which Dr Gay failed to properly credit other scholars. A US congressional committee, investigating the plagiarism allegations, sent a letter to the university on Wednesday demanding all the documentation and communications be produced before it.

The new issues were found in Dr Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation, in which Harvard said it found two examples of "duplicative language without appropriate attribution", the NYT report said.

"President Gay will update her dissertation correcting these instances of inadequate citation," it quoted Harvard as saying on Wednesday.

In an earlier review last week, Harvard had said that it found two published articles that needed additional citations.

The Congressional committee is led by Virginia Foxx, a Republican, who said the inquiry would see if students and staff are held to the same academic standard.

"Our concern is that standards are not being applied consistently, resulting in different rules for different members of the academic community," the BBC cited from her letter written to the Harvard's board.

She has asked the university to respond by December 29.

"If a university is willing to look the other way and not hold faculty accountable for engaging in academically dishonest behavior, it cheapens its mission and the value of its education," said Ms Foxx.

Harvard is a private institution that receives hundreds of millions of dollars of public funding each year. It has $50 billion in assets.

Harvard's board has said it became aware of plagiarism allegations against Dr Gay in October, but has unearthed no violations of Harvard policies.