University of London's PhD degree awarding process

The request was successful.

Dear University of London,

The following inquiries have been submitted to the London School of Economies (LSE), where the incidents occurred. However, since University of London was the governing body at the time the supposed PhD degree was awarded, I would request your university to respond to the following inquiries as well.

I have some general questions regarding the degree awarding process of the British institutes of higher learning, as the following videos from a prominent female politician in Taiwan completely changed my perception regarding the scholastic quality and morale integrity of the British higher education system. I have deep respect and admiration for the great British universities in a country which has produced such distinguished scholars and scientists as William Shakespeare, Issac Newton and Michael Faraday, but the claims in the videos, if true, will severely tarnish your collective reputation. I hope you seriously go through the videos and address my questions and concerns. Since these videos are speeches given by the female politician in public and have been circulated in Taiwan and around the world, there should be no concern regarding infringement of individual privacy. All the videos have English subtitles, which you can independently verify their accuracy.

The female politician in the videos claimed:

1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vrx-rPn...
In her “PhD’ Viva examine at LSE , she claimed that her three examiners had decided to award her one and half PhD degrees on the spot and also cite her great achievements in her PhD diploma. Really? It appeared that at the sole discretion of the LSE examiners, they could give out any number of PhD degrees, whether in whole or in fraction, just like distributing pizza, to any candidate during the middle of examination. This has never been heard of in pretty much every university in the civilized world, but, is that how the British system works? Also, my understanding of the LSE Viva examine is that only two examiners would be present, excluding the candidate’s own supervisor, who she claimed was in the meeting. Is her description of the LSE Viva examine correct and truthful or that is just something out of her own imagination?

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ8CditY...
The female politician also mentioned in the video that her LSE department head once summoned her to his office. The department head used language such as “bloody hell” in the conversation and patted her, a female student, on the shoulder. In the U.S. this will be viewed as a highly inappropriate conduct. However, the way she mentioned it with frequent smiles on her face, this kind of behavior does not seem to be a big deal in your academic world?

Other people have posted similar questions to LSE and University of London but failed to get any answer, which is highly disappointing because the trademark of a great university is the pursuit of truth with honesty and transparency. I hope your university can provide a clear and concise answer as to whether the above scenarios the female politician described conformed to LSE and University of London’s academic standards and practices and whether she, or anyone else, has actually obtained 1.5 PhD degrees from LSE as claimed. There is really no reason for a great institution like yours to shy away from telling the truth as it can only hurt your university’s reputation and its great faculty, student body and alumni.

I am just an ordinary person without any political motive or affiliation. As one who has gone through graduate studies, the claims made in the videos are not only strange, bizarre but are so hurtful to hear as they represent great mockeries to the academic values and honors so important and dear to us. I believe once you have gone through the videos you would share my feeling.

Yours faithfully,
W Hung

Records Management,

Thank you for your email. You have reached the Freedom of Information
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I thank you for your patience and wish you the best of luck in the current
situation.

Records Management,

Dear W Hung 
Thank you for your request for information, received 10 August. 
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) gives a general right of access
to be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds
information of the description specified in the request, and to have that
information communicated to the requester, unless an exemption applies.
In regards to this case, the University of London confirms that Ms.
Ing-Wen Tsai was awarded a PhD by the University of London in 1984 and she
was registered as an LSE student.
You can view the LSE statement on the thesis at the following link:
http://www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-fr...
and access a copy of thesis online at the following link:
http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3976/
Further details of this student's record are exempt under Section 40 (2)
of the Freedom of Information Act, where disclosure would breach the data
protection principles.

Please let me know if you require any further information.

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University of London
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From: W Hung <[FOI #682938 email]>
Sent: 10 August 2020 00:29
To: Records Management <[email address]>
Subject: Freedom of Information request - University of London's PhD
degree awarding process
 
Dear University of London,

The following  inquiries have been submitted to the London School of
Economies (LSE), where the incidents occurred. However, since University
of London was the governing body at the time the supposed PhD degree was
awarded, I would request your university to respond to the following
inquiries as well.

I have some general questions regarding the degree awarding process of the
British institutes of higher learning, as the following videos from a
prominent female politician in Taiwan completely changed my perception
regarding the scholastic quality and morale integrity of the British
higher education system. I have deep respect and admiration for the great
British universities in a country which has produced  such distinguished
scholars and scientists as William Shakespeare, Issac Newton and Michael
Faraday, but the claims in the videos, if true, will severely tarnish your
collective reputation. I hope you seriously go through the videos and
address my questions and concerns.  Since these videos are speeches given
by the female politician in public and have been circulated in Taiwan and
around the world,  there should be no concern regarding infringement of
individual privacy. All the videos have English subtitles, which you can
independently verify their accuracy.

The female politician in the videos claimed:

1.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vrx-rPn...
In her “PhD’ Viva examine at LSE , she claimed that her three examiners
had decided to award her one and half PhD degrees on the spot and also
cite her great achievements in her PhD diploma. Really? It appeared that
at the sole discretion of the LSE examiners, they could give out any
number of PhD degrees, whether in whole or in fraction, just like
distributing pizza, to any candidate during the middle of examination.
This has never been heard of in pretty much every university in the
civilized world, but, is that how the British system works? Also, my
understanding of the LSE Viva examine is that only two examiners would be
present, excluding the candidate’s own supervisor, who she claimed was in
the meeting. Is her description of the LSE Viva examine correct and
truthful or that is just something out of her own imagination?

2. [3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ8CditY...
The female politician also mentioned in the video that her LSE department
head once summoned her to his office. The department head used language
such as “bloody hell” in the conversation and patted her, a female
student, on the shoulder. In the U.S. this will be viewed as a highly
inappropriate conduct. However, the way she mentioned it with frequent
smiles on her face, this kind of behavior does not seem to be a big deal
in your academic world?

Other people have posted similar questions to LSE and University of London
but failed to get any answer, which is highly disappointing because the
trademark of a great university is the pursuit of truth with honesty and
transparency. I hope your university can provide a clear and concise
answer as to whether the above scenarios the female politician described
conformed to LSE and University of London’s academic standards and
practices and whether she, or anyone else, has actually obtained 1.5 PhD
degrees from LSE as claimed. There is really no reason for a great
institution like yours to shy away from telling the truth as it can only
hurt your university’s reputation and its great faculty,  student body and
alumni. 

I am just an ordinary person without any political motive or affiliation.
As one who has gone through graduate studies, the claims made in the
videos are not only strange, bizarre but are so hurtful to hear as they
represent great mockeries to the academic values and honors so important
and dear to us. I believe once you have gone through the videos you would
share my feeling. 

Yours faithfully,
W Hung

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