A FORMER Fianna Fáil county councillor has expressed his delight that “a long six months of torture” has ended but said questions remain to be answered after a complaint of plagiarism was made against him relating to his masters’ thesis, four years after he graduated.

 

According to Flan Garvey, the complaint sets a dangerous precedent for students and graduates across the country.

“I was an ordinary student and I stood up for myself and my fellow students and the students’ union in Tralee backed me 100% because they were worried about all students. Can students’ work be checked out four years afterwards or 10 years afterwards? This case was unique.

“This has never happened before in an IT. It fell on my shoulders to stand up for my fellow students in IT Tralee and all over the country, in fact. Wouldn’t you wonder did anyone ever produce a thesis that there was no mistake in? I doubt it,” Mr Garvey told The Clare Champion.

The complaint emerged at the end of last year and was investigated, before a finding was made last week in which Mr Garvey was found to have unintentionally plagiarised parts of his MA thesis. It was decided by the Examinations and Assessments Appeals Committee that “in light of the deficiencies in the thesis”, corrections should be made in the official copy of the thesis.

Mr Garvey was chairmen of the governing body of IT Tralee while he was doing his masters there. “I was a student. I had a supervisor. Because I was involved internally, I had to have two external supervisors, who happened to be Fr Harry Bohan and Monsignor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, former professor of Irish in Maynooth college. These were appointed by the college. Then, after that, there was a course board under Professor Eamonn McQuade of UL. All those different levels recommended my thesis ‘without modification’. That is the term used. So, in other words, I as a student, how could I be blamed for anything? There was no conflict of interest, as was proven,” he said.

“I would have to admit I was naïve. It was 40 years since I was in college before. I was naïve. I had never done a thesis before. The fact I didn’t know how to type meant I would write the notes, give it to typists in Ennis, then give it to my supervisor, then it would come back to me to correct.

“Then I had to give it back to a girl in the IT before it was submitted. It went through so many different layers, it would be amazing if something didn’t escape us.

“At the end of the day, all that is wrong with my thesis is that there are two wrong references and there are a number of inverted commas missing and that is all that was wrong with that thesis after all this hullabaloo.” Mr Garvey added.

The complaint and subsequent investigation made national news in November. “There are rules in every college, which clearly state that any individual student’s business should not be divulged to the media and mine was leaked. That is unfair. It is not just about me. I am defending other people’s rights. They should be observed and respected,” Mr Garvey said.

“I was tried by the media and found guilty. In the public eye, I was guilty and the media brought that forward, no bother. But look it, I am old enough at this stage to understand the way the media works but they are not going to bury Flan Garvey yet,” he added.

The former Mayor of Clare said he is “delighted this is over because it was a long six months of torture for me and my family and the people who knew me”.

“This is over for me now. This is for the college now to deal with. There are lots of questions but it is for the college to delve into those. The college’s management will see for themselves what needs to be done. The ball is out of my court. I am clear; I am as happy as Larry,” he went on.

Mr Garvey was chairman of the governing board of IT Tralee in 2008 while he was a student there and remained in that position until the complaint was made against him late last year, when he stepped aside. He has said he “will be going back to it straight away”. He is also chairman of Institutes of Technology Ireland.

 

 

‘Unintentional plagiarism had occurred’, investigation finds

A FORMER mayor of Clare, accused of plagiarising parts of his masters thesis at a college where he was chairman of the governing board, will have his thesis corrected after an investigation found “unintentional plagiarism had occurred”.

Inagh man Flan Garvey completed his MA thesis, Cabhair is Cairde is Grásta ó Dhia chugainn: A study of the Saíocht of a Parish in County Clare, in 2008 at the Institute of Technology, Tralee. At the time, he was chairman of the college’s governing board. He stepped aside from this role when a complaint was made by members of staff at the institute alleging plagiarism. This stated that published papers were ‘either not cited or misleadingly cited…in a manner that suggests that Mr Garvey is their author’. The complaint also raised concerns about the appropriateness of Mr Garvey being a registered student of the institute while at the same time serving as chairman of its governing body and the possible conflict to which this could give rise.

As part of its investigation, members of the External Investigation Panel (EIP) travelled to Tralee in January and met with three signatories of the complaint and Mr Garvey’s thesis supervisor and later met with Mr Garvey. They also met with the first external examiner, Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, and spoke with the second external examiner, Fr Harry Bohan, in early February.

At the meeting with Mr Garvey, he explained that he could not type and had given handwritten notes both to his supervisor and to typists, who typed different sections of his thesis. The EIP deduced that “it is evident that he had not fully informed himself of the rules and protocols in relation to writing a thesis, citing reference sources and appropriating another’s work”.

Mr Garvey also told the EIP that his supervisor regularly returned his drafts to him with the term ‘source’ in the margin. The panel said it was the responsibility of Mr Garvey to inform himself of the relevant regulations but “the institute also had a responsibility to ensure that he was provided with and took advantage of the necessary supports to undertake his research work and the writing of his thesis. It is unclear to the panel why the thesis was submitted to the external examiners when it clearly was not in compliance with institute requirements.”

The EIP concluded that plagiarism had occurred in two chapters of the thesis but that Mr Garvey’s plagiarism was unintentional. The panel also found that Mr Garvey’s MA degree was “not attained in a fraudulent manner”. The panel also concluded that it found no evidence of conflict of interest.

The panel recommended the college review the implementation of a monitoring system for postgraduates at the college. It also advised that, in the future, the institute “require all external examiners of higher research degrees to include with their recommendation a written report of not less than one page stating reasons for their decision” to recommend the thesis without modification, recommend it with minor corrections, refer it for substantial amendment and re-examination or not recommend it.

The Examinations and Assessments Review Committee (EARC) found that “Mr Garvey committed plagiarism in chapter one and five of the thesis” and “that Mr Garvey’s MA thesis was attained in an unjustified manner but was not attained in a fraudulent manner”.

In February, Mr Garvey appealed this to the Examinations and Assessments Appeals Committee, which reported on April 29. It stated that “a finding that a degree had been attained in an unjustified manner, thus exposing the learner to its possible revocation and withdrawal, for what was found to be an unintentional and non-fraudulent infraction of an academic disciplinary rule, which had not been clearly formulated or communicated to the student body, could not, the committee concludes, be characterised as fair or consistent with due process”.

It concludes that “in light of the deficiencies in the thesis which the panel identified, it is appropriate that corrections be made to the thesis by way of the insertion of a corrigenda notification in the official copy of the thesis.”

A statement from IT Tralee said it would “immediately act on all recommendations from both investigation committees and will update the relevant regulations in the Student Handbook. QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland) have been informed of the outcome of the investigation and no further comment will be made by the institute until the QQI revert.”