What a difference a year makes ...

BY dropping his two-letter title and moving the embattled chief science adviser swiftly sideways last night, the Government attempted to dodge mounting criticism over his dubious academic credentials.

Barry McSweeney stepped aside from his €120,000-a-year position last night more than five weeks after it first emerged he obtained a PhD from California-based degree mill Pacific Western University (PWU) in 1992.

Since the 1970s PWU has been notorious for selling degrees and has frequently featured as the subject of media and US Government investigations into fake degrees.