LONDON — The London School of Economics will divert a donation of $488,000 it received from the Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation to establish a scholarship fund for North African students, the university announced Tuesday.
In a statement, the school said it regretted “the reputational damage” caused by “the association with the Gaddafi name.”
The funds were donated to the school’s Global Governance program by Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Seif Qaddafi completed both a master’s degree and a doctorate at the school.
The school also announced that it was opening an investigation into accusations that parts of his 2007 Ph.D. thesis may have been plagiarized or ghost-written.
“The L.S.E. is aware that there are allegations of plagiarism,” said Jess Winterstein, a spokeswoman for the internationally renowned university. “The school takes all allegations of plagiarism very seriously and is looking into the matter in accordance with standard L.S.E. procedures.”
But Sachin Patel, editor of the school’s student newspaper, The Beaver, said in an interview that normally plagiarism investigations involved “the informed consent of the student — and that may not be his first priority right now.”
As the upheaval in Libya continues, the controversy surrounding money tied to the Qaddafi government has bruised the reputation of the university, founded in 1895 by the social reformers Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Last week, students occupied the staff dining room and the director’s office in protest over associations with the Libyan government. “Students are saying: ‘It’s dirty money. Give it back,’ ” said Charlotte Girada, president of the student union. “The L.S.E. prides itself on a commitment to social justice and democratic principles, and we really need to think more carefully about who we take money from.”
Frequently depicted as the Western-friendly face of Libya’s future, Seif Qaddafi made a pledge in January 2010 to give about $2.45 million to the Global Governance research institute to finance a program on North Africa focused on politics, economics and society. The money was to be paid out over a period of five years.
At the time of the donation, one of the few voices in opposition was Fred Halliday, a former professor of international relations at the university, who cited the worldwide criticism over Libya’s embrace of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, after his release in August 2009.
On Monday, Sir Howard Davies, director of the school, told the BBC, “We took a risk on that, and I think it’s right to say that that risk has backfired on us.” Mr. Davies said he felt “embarrassed,” adding, “I’m not ashamed of what we’ve done with the money but I do think it’s clear that the source of it now is not one we wish to be associated with.”
The school’s embarrassment grew acute on Feb. 21, when Seif Qaddafi made a speech in Libya warning protesters that supporters of his father’s government would fight “to the last bullet” and threatening that if the protests continued the country would erupt in civil war. “Rivers of blood will run through Libya,” Mr. Qaddafi said.
David Held, director of the Global Governance program and a mentor to Mr. Qaddafi throughout his time at the school, described “a young man who was caught between loyalties to his family and a desire to reform his country.”
In a personal statement, Dr. Held said his support for Mr. Qaddafi “was always conditional on him resolving the dilemma that he faced in a progressive and democratic direction.”
Recent events, he added, indicate that his former protégé “tragically, but fatefully, made the wrong judgment.”
However, one former professor at the school said he thought it had nothing to apologize for.
Though pronouncing himself “disappointed by the speech” because Mr. Qaddafi “was not behaving as if he had had an L.S.E. education,” the former professor, Meghnad Desai, compared the donation with financial gifts from other questionable figures.
“Academic research needs money — Rockefeller was a robber baron once, but we take his money,” Lord Desai, told a British newspaper, The Evening Standard.
In an interview, he also dismissed the possibility of plagiarism.
He noted that he and another examiner did not pass Mr. Qaddafi’s thesis, “Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions,” when it was first submitted. Mr. Qaddafi was told “to revise it and put some realpolitik in it and resubmit it,” Lord Desai said. “Then we read it again and gave him the Ph.D. We gave him a very rough ride.” [nytimes]
In a statement, the school said it regretted “the reputational damage” caused by “the association with the Gaddafi name.”
The funds were donated to the school’s Global Governance program by Seif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, a son of the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Seif Qaddafi completed both a master’s degree and a doctorate at the school.
The school also announced that it was opening an investigation into accusations that parts of his 2007 Ph.D. thesis may have been plagiarized or ghost-written.
“The L.S.E. is aware that there are allegations of plagiarism,” said Jess Winterstein, a spokeswoman for the internationally renowned university. “The school takes all allegations of plagiarism very seriously and is looking into the matter in accordance with standard L.S.E. procedures.”
But Sachin Patel, editor of the school’s student newspaper, The Beaver, said in an interview that normally plagiarism investigations involved “the informed consent of the student — and that may not be his first priority right now.”
As the upheaval in Libya continues, the controversy surrounding money tied to the Qaddafi government has bruised the reputation of the university, founded in 1895 by the social reformers Beatrice and Sidney Webb and the playwright George Bernard Shaw.
Last week, students occupied the staff dining room and the director’s office in protest over associations with the Libyan government. “Students are saying: ‘It’s dirty money. Give it back,’ ” said Charlotte Girada, president of the student union. “The L.S.E. prides itself on a commitment to social justice and democratic principles, and we really need to think more carefully about who we take money from.”
Frequently depicted as the Western-friendly face of Libya’s future, Seif Qaddafi made a pledge in January 2010 to give about $2.45 million to the Global Governance research institute to finance a program on North Africa focused on politics, economics and society. The money was to be paid out over a period of five years.
At the time of the donation, one of the few voices in opposition was Fred Halliday, a former professor of international relations at the university, who cited the worldwide criticism over Libya’s embrace of Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi, the convicted Lockerbie bomber, after his release in August 2009.
On Monday, Sir Howard Davies, director of the school, told the BBC, “We took a risk on that, and I think it’s right to say that that risk has backfired on us.” Mr. Davies said he felt “embarrassed,” adding, “I’m not ashamed of what we’ve done with the money but I do think it’s clear that the source of it now is not one we wish to be associated with.”
The school’s embarrassment grew acute on Feb. 21, when Seif Qaddafi made a speech in Libya warning protesters that supporters of his father’s government would fight “to the last bullet” and threatening that if the protests continued the country would erupt in civil war. “Rivers of blood will run through Libya,” Mr. Qaddafi said.
David Held, director of the Global Governance program and a mentor to Mr. Qaddafi throughout his time at the school, described “a young man who was caught between loyalties to his family and a desire to reform his country.”
In a personal statement, Dr. Held said his support for Mr. Qaddafi “was always conditional on him resolving the dilemma that he faced in a progressive and democratic direction.”
Recent events, he added, indicate that his former protégé “tragically, but fatefully, made the wrong judgment.”
However, one former professor at the school said he thought it had nothing to apologize for.
Though pronouncing himself “disappointed by the speech” because Mr. Qaddafi “was not behaving as if he had had an L.S.E. education,” the former professor, Meghnad Desai, compared the donation with financial gifts from other questionable figures.
“Academic research needs money — Rockefeller was a robber baron once, but we take his money,” Lord Desai, told a British newspaper, The Evening Standard.
In an interview, he also dismissed the possibility of plagiarism.
He noted that he and another examiner did not pass Mr. Qaddafi’s thesis, “Role of Civil Society in the Democratization of Global Governance Institutions,” when it was first submitted. Mr. Qaddafi was told “to revise it and put some realpolitik in it and resubmit it,” Lord Desai said. “Then we read it again and gave him the Ph.D. We gave him a very rough ride.” [nytimes]
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