School panel finds faults with Hungary deputy premier's 1992 thesis, won't pursue further

BUDAPEST, Hungary – A Hungarian university says that a 1992 post-graduate thesis in sociology by Hungary's deputy prime minister has "serious professional-ethical faults," but that it won't pursue the matter any further.

Katalin Tausz, dean of Budapest's Eotvos Lorand University, said Friday that while a three-member panel found "very significant similarities" between the thesis of Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjen and another work, there were no laws providing guidance about how to proceed.

Semjen acknowledged the panel's conclusions, but since the university won't take further steps, he said he considered the case "definitely and officially closed."

Semjen's case isn't the first academic scandal to hit Hungary's politicians.

In April, President Pal Schmitt resigned after experts concluded that most of his doctoral thesis in physical education was copied from other authors.