Science advisor to be asked to prove PhD

GOVERNMENT chief science advisor Dr Barry McSweeney will this week face further questions over a dubious PhD he received from a discredited university in the US.

With his job on the line, Dr McSweeney has so far failed to respond to calls for an explanation of a 1992 PhD he received from California-based Pacific Western University (PWU) an institution found to be little more than a one-room operation offering degrees over the internet for a flat fee.

Government inquiries, initiated by Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin, have already established that PWU "did not have accrediting powers within the US."