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Around 100 professors investigated in 'bribes for doctorate' probe

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Around 100 professors investigated in 'bribes for doctorate' probe
Photo: DPA

Around 100 university professors across the country are under investigation for taking bribes in return for ‘helping’ students get doctorates, it has emerged.

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Günter Feld from the Cologne state prosecutor confirmed the figure to weekly magazine Focus, adding,“It involves teaching professors from all subjects, from medicine through law and economics to engineering.”

The prosecutor is investigating payments to professors from around €4,000 to €20,000 – in return for which it is thought the professors would help their students get their doctorates.

The payments were made by the Institute for Scientific Advice in Bergisch Gladbach near Cologne.

One investigator told the magazine that the team were examining professors working in colleges in Frankfurt, Tübingen, Leipzig, Rostock, Jena, Bayreuth, Ingolstadt, Hamburg, Hannover, Bielefeld, Hagen and Cologne as well as the Free University in Berlin.

The investigation was prompted by a case before the District Court in Hildesheim where last spring a law professor at Hannover University was convicted of 68 counts of corruption and sentenced to three years in jail.

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