Pressure mounts on McSweeney over PhD

ACADEMICS on both sides of the Atlantic are now openly calling for the resignation of Government chief science advisor Dr Barry McSweeney, who is embroiled in continuing controversy over the origins of a doctorate he received in America.

Dr McSweeney is under mounting pressure to explain the conditions under which he obtained his PhD from California-based Pacific Western University (PWU) - an institution accused of selling bogus degrees since the 1970s.

Although he has refused to comment publicly, Dr McSweeney continues to perform his duties and yesterday attended the launch of a Health Research Board report in Dublin Castle where he briefly addressed the floor.

But academics at home and abroad are now openly questioning Dr McSweeney’s capacity to perform his duties given the doubts hanging over his academic record.

Fiona De Londras, a law lecturer in Dublin’s Griffith College said she objected to the fact that “it would be made so easy for somebody to get so high an academic degree”.

She said: “I would think that he should resign, not because the job needs a PhD or because he is not qualified to do it, but because of the implications of acquiring a qualification in such a way and the implications for the name of his office.”

Ms De Londras said she objected to the fact that “somebody who has a role in reviewing research would accept a degree from an institution that would appear to have such contempt for research methodology”.

Similar sentiments were expressed by Margaret Soltan, a professor of English at George Washington University in the US capital and an opponent of diploma mills.

Professor Soltan said she stood by the view that Dr McSweeney should resign and added that a similar situation in the US would “inevitably result in that person’s withdrawal from the appointment”.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin is due to meet with Dr McSweeney this week to seek further clarification on the origins of the PhD.

In the meantime Mr Martin has declined to comment other than to confirm in the Dáil last week that PWU was not an accredited institution according to the Irish authorities.

Dr McSweeney is still refusing to comment publicly and his office again declined to make any statement when contacted yesterday despite calls for an explanation from the opposition.

EU Commissioner Janez Potocnik has been formally asked by Labour MEP Proinsias De Rossa whether the scientist used the PhD to apply for two senior EU jobs - as the director general of the EU’s Joint Research Centre and head of the EU unit responsible for the Marie Curie research fellowships.