Achieving a Ph.D. Degree
Academia generally considers a Ph.D. degree the terminal degree in any program of education. Everyone knows that a Ph.D. degree represents the pinnacle of higher education, the greatest possible educational attainment. Census Bureau statistics show that only a little more than one percent of Americans hold a Ph.D. degree. You are literally one out of a hundred when you hold a Ph.D. degree. A Ph.D. degree can give its holder a great advantage over other job seekers not just in academia but also in the corporate world. Your Ph.D. degree, though, does more than give you a competitive edge. It also gives you confidence and a sense of purpose and worth. Earning a Ph.D. degree is simply an enormous accomplishment, one to value highly and protect wisely.
PhD Degree Revocation Is a Possibility
When working hard on your Ph.D. degree, you surely weren't thinking that your college or university might someday revoke it. Unfortunately, Ph.D. degree revocation is a possibility. Indeed, degree revocation may be more common for Ph.D. degrees than for bachelor's and master's degrees because of the publication and occasional retraction of Ph.D. theses. A retraction watch website reports Ph.D. revocations worldwide, including at U.S. institutions like Ohio State University. Ph.D. revocations typically relate to the discovery of the thesis's faulty or fraudulent basis. If the Ph.D. thesis falls to misconduct allegations, then the Ph.D. degree may fall with it.
What Ph.D. Degree Revocation Means
Ph.D. revocation may mean a good bit more than you first think. Ph.D. degree revocation may include your school's demand that you return the physical diploma or other indicia of the Ph.D. degree. But more importantly, your school will change its academic records to withdraw your degree and instead reflect its revocation. It's one thing to earn a Ph.D. degree; it's another thing not to earn a Ph.D. degree; and it's still another thing to have your school indicate as a matter of record that it revoked your Ph.D. degree for some form of serious dishonesty or misconduct. Ph.D. degree revocation may also mean that the school publicizes the revocation. The University of Colorado, for instance, widely publicized its revocation of a Ph.D. degree of a prominent graduate, publicity picked up by the local, national, and worldwide press. Everyone who needs or wants to know will know of your Ph.D. degree's revocation.
Your Immediate Issues Facing Ph.D. Degree Revocation
You face several immediate issues when first learning of the possibility of your Ph.D. degree's revocation. You should earnestly address those issues as soon as you recover from the notice's shock. Your first and best move is to retain a premier student defense team and national education attorney advisor. You need a defense team with the skill, experience, and strategic approach to effectively defend your Ph.D. degree. You also need prompt action. Your school may have notified you of important deadlines to respond, which in itself will require your defense team's diligent action. Your defense team also needs to help you understand the disciplinary charges and evidence behind them while helping you gather your own evidence opposing the charges. You'll also benefit from your defense team's advice on what you should do about your current job or school and any professional licensing bodies or publicity. Your immediate issue is getting the right help. Do so now by contacting the Lento Law Firm.
The School's Ph.D. Degree Revocation Issues
The school that seeks to revoke your Ph.D. degree has its own issues. Don't overlook those issues. Your defense team's strategic approach should account for and leverage those issues for your effective defense. For example, your school must consider whether it has the authority to revoke your Ph.D. degree, what procedures the law requires it to follow, and the credibility and weight of the evidence for and against you. Your school must also consider whether seeking Ph.D. degree revocation will positively or negatively impact the school's integrity and community. Your school must consider how its most important constituents, including students, faculty, alumni, accreditors, and employers, will feel about the school pursuing or not pursuing revocation. Your defense team can use its answers to these questions to advocate with your school for your best defense.
Grounds for Ph.D. Degree Revocation
At root, your Ph.D. revocation defense depends on contesting your school's grounds for revocation. Colleges and universities must have solid grounds for what is a school's most drastic disciplinary sanction, Ph.D. degree revocation. Those grounds usually involve what a Ph.D. thesis means to an academic institution. Ph.D. theses are a foundational component of the scholarly, scientific, and academic enterprise. Academia builds the credibility of its expertise on conveying truthful and valuable knowledge. Colleges and universities want and need their Ph.D. students to publish groundbreaking, award-winning, field-advancing Ph.D. theses. They don't need unreliable, untrustworthy, reputation-killing Ph.D. work. The grounds for Ph.D. revocation thus fall into three main categories.
Falsified and Fraudulent Ph.D. Data as Revocation Grounds
Ph.D. revocation proceedings may first involve allegations of falsified and fraudulent data. Deliberately falsifying Ph.D. thesis data suggests a high level of untrustworthiness, something a school must not endorse with a Ph.D. degree credential. Faking thesis data is one thing. Publishing fake results is another thing. Publication turns the wrong action into outright fraud. And standing behind fraud can kill a school's integrity and reputation. That concern makes schools pursue research fraud more aggressively than other Ph.D. revocation grounds.
Plagiarized Ph.D. Theses as Revocation Grounds
Ph.D. revocation proceedings can also involve allegations of plagiarized PhD publication. Plagiarism isn't quite the same wrong as falsifying published Ph.D. data. Plagiarism doesn't require faking data. The published plagiarized work isn't misleading anyone as to the research data. Plagiarism instead claims credit for others' credible work. But plagiarism is still a serious enough wrong, undermining the PhD degree holder's trustworthiness, to make it another common ground.
Faulty Ph.D. Methods as Revocation Grounds
Faulty Ph.D. work is a less common but still possible ground for Ph.D. degree revocation. Some of us are just not quite up to our craft. A Ph.D. thesis that misapplies statistical or other scientific methods isn't a useful scholarly product. It deserves challenge and overturning. But the usual method for discrediting unreliable work is in the literature, not in disciplinary proceedings. Schools would ordinarily be reluctant to pursue Ph.D. revocation solely because of sloppy or poor work without clear indications of deliberate dishonesty.
Other Grounds for Ph.D. Degree Revocation
Other possible grounds for Ph.D. revocation include falsifying transcripts, forging academic records, or other academic dishonesty outside of the Ph.D. thesis, like sabotaging others' work. Severe school-related behavioral misconduct, like sexual assault, could also be a revocation grounds. Title IX policies, including at prominent universities, may include a degree revocation remedy.
Authority for Revoking a Ph.D. Degree
A school's authority to revoke a Ph.D. degree isn't necessarily a given. After all, revoking a Ph.D. degree can seem a little like taking back something that the holder essentially bought and paid for, perhaps long ago, on plain grounds. And indeed, courts have at times upheld graduate challenges to Ph.D. degree revocation. For example, a leading higher education journal reports on one such case involving the University of Texas at Austin. That case held that the university would have to go to court to revoke the Ph.D. degree rather than simply do it on its own. Due process challenges, where the school makes missteps in its revocation procedures, can be especially effective.
Policies for Ph.D. Degree Revocation
Schools across the country maintain student codes of conduct and discipline policies that authorize sanctions from reprimand to suspension and expulsion. Many of those policies, like the academic and professional integrity policy at the University of Michigan's graduate school, will specifically mention degree revocation as a potential sanction. Some policies grant school officials discretion to impose other sanctions at their discretion, from which school officials may imply authority for Ph.D. degree revocation. And some policies tie degree revocation specifically to faked research data and fraudulent scholarship publication.
Potential Impacts of Ph.D. Degree Revocation
Just how Ph.D. degree revocation may affect you depends on your circumstances. But you should learn those potential impacts so that you make sound judgments about the time and resources you devote to defending your Ph.D. degree.
Ph.D. Degree Revocation Impacts on Education
Because a Ph.D. degree is generally a terminal degree, Ph.D. holders may not ordinarily be thinking about further education. But some Ph.D. holders do continue studies in fellowships, appointments, internships, and other positions that clearly depend on the Ph.D. degree credential and its credibility. If you lose your Ph.D. degree, you'll lose those opportunities for further education. You'll be out of academia, maybe forever. And that loss could mean a great deal to you, given your academic familiarity, comfort, standing, and skill.
Ph.D. Degree Revocation Impacts on Jobs and Careers
Educational attainment goes hand in hand with job and career opportunities. Generally, the more education, the better when it comes to job and career. And Ph.D. degrees are no exception. The corporate world can highly value a Ph.D. degree holder who can thus have career-long competitive advantages. Ph.D. degree revocation, though, can have severe job and career impacts. You would likely lose your teaching post or any other position in academia and may well lose any research, management, or leadership post in corporate employment that relates in any way to your Ph.D. degree. Loss of any professional licensure or certification could follow, disabling or destroying your PhD-field career.
Ph.D. Degree Revocation Impacts on Family and Finances
If your employment and income relate to your Ph.D. degree, and you lose the degree and that employment and income, then you'll very likely suffer severe family and financial impacts. Any dependents you support, including spouse, children, and elderly parents, could suffer the same losses you suffer with job loss, such as loss of health insurance, creditworthiness, and even home and transportation. Beware of the financial and family impacts of Ph.D. degree revocation. Measure your potential costs carefully to calibrate your defense effort accordingly.
Fighting Ph.D. Degree Revocation
Colleges and universities must generally afford a graduate that is facing degree revocation with due process protections. Fighting Ph.D. degree revocation is certainly possible. Your school will very likely offer protective procedures, and if it doesn't, you can very likely demand those procedures. The question is, instead, how you will go about invoking and deploying those procedures for your best defense.
Fighting Ph.D. Degree Revocation with The Lento Law Firm
Fighting academic discipline successfully generally requires an attorney advisor skilled and experienced in academic discipline matters. Ph.D. degree revocation proceedings can be extraordinarily complex both on their technical issues and their procedural issues. Going it alone is generally a foolhardy approach. And retaining a local criminal defense attorney without experience in academic administrative matters may not be much better. An experienced discipline defense attorney advisor will take a duly strategic approach to your Ph.D. degree defense through actions like the following:
- evaluating the school's charges and supporting evidence;
- denying false allegations with accurate and supported rebuttals;
- requiring disciplinary officials to communicate with the attorney;
- identifying, acquiring, and presenting your best defense evidence;
- conducting conferences and hearings effectively toward resolution;
- identifying and pursuing appeals to higher school officials;
- generating options to negotiate compromise resolution; and
- seeking special alternative relief through school oversight officials.
Ph.D. Degree Defense Available Nationwide
Your best move to defend your Ph.D. degree from revocation is to retain the best available representation. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team and national education attorney advisor Joseph D. Lento have successfully represented hundreds of students and graduates across the country against all kinds of school charges, including cases seeking degree revocation. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now to retain the Lento Law Firm Team for the best possible outcome to your Ph.D. degree revocation defense.
