In the wake of the conviction and sentencing of former immigration department head Mary Anne Thompson for fraudulently claiming that she had a doctorate from London School of Economics, TEU national president Dr Tom Ryan has criticised the role of the then-state services commissioner Michael Wintringham in the affair.

According to the Dominion Post, back in 2004 Wintringham instructed a private sector recruiter, who had told him that LSE had no record of Thompson having gained a doctorate, to “desist from further inquiries”. At the time, Thompson was a leading contender for the role of head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.

“It suggests a very cavalier approach by the State Services Commission, and perhaps by the Security Intelligence Service which also might have been expected to check Thomson’s claims as she rose to the top level of government service”, said Ryan.

“This is all the more surprising given the furore just two years earlier when John Davy, a Canadian appointed to head the new Māori TV network, was sentenced to eight months in prison and then deported for fraudulently claiming in his job application – amongst other fabrications – that he had a BCom and an MBA from Denver State University”.

In fact, Davy’s ‘degrees’ had been purchased from an imaginary institution over the internet. As with Thompson, no one had bothered to check his qualifications.

Also in 2002, a United Future member of parliament, Bernie Ogilvie, was forced to stop using the ‘Dr’ title in the political domain after the media exposed it as an honorary award from a private US theological college of no academic standing.

“What these cases show is that degree rorts take many forms, and is more common in New Zealand than we usually admit”, said Dr Ryan. “Employers and authorities have to ensure that such abuses are not allowed to devalue the achievements and hard work of genuine students and their teachers, and that the reputations of accredited tertiary institutions in this country and internationally are not undermined.”