BERLIN – Germany's former education minister says she's ending a legal fight to regain her doctorate, which was revoked over plagiarism allegations.
Annette Schavan resigned in February 2013 after a panel at Duesseldorf's Heinrich Heine University reviewed her 1980 thesis and withdrew her doctorate, saying it had discovered uncredited passages from the work of others throughout her paper. Schavan, considered close to Chancellor Angela Merkel, was education minister for seven years.
Schavan denies any intention to deceive and fought the decision. But last month, a court in Duesseldorf upheld the university's ruling.
On Thursday, Schavan said she has decided not to appeal. She added: "Now I am preparing for new tasks and looking forward to them."
Merkel's government plans to make Schavan, a reform-minded Roman Catholic, Germany's next ambassador to the Vatican.
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