ZAGREB, March 1, 2018 – The University of Augsburg has confirmed that former Croatian Science and Education Minister Pavo Barišić’s doctoral thesis from 1989 is not self-plagiarism.
A spokesman for the university said that following an investigation into plagiarism allegations no proof was found to corroborate the accusations.
Barišić earned a doctoral degree in philosophy from the German university.
In February 2017, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Croatian Pensioners’ Party (HSU) and the Croatian People’s Party (HNS), which was in opposition at the time, initiated a vote of no-confidence in Barišić for allegedly plagiarising a work by US philosopher Stephen Schlesinger. The vote, however, showed that the minister was enjoying the confidence of the Croatian parliament.
Defending his minister, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that Barišić’s work was not plagiarism but had technical omissions. He recalled that the universities of Zagreb and Split had found that it was not plagiarism.
