PVV secretary of state Maeijer has to rewrite thesis at ESL after plagiarism

PVV secretary of state Vicky Maeijer must go back to the drawing board with her master thesis. The examination board of the Erasmus School of Law has ruled that she committed plagiarism and has declared her 2009 thesis invalid.

Maeijer obtained her degree from the Erasmus School of Law in 2009, with a master’s in International & European Public Law. At that time, she was a policy officer for the PVV in the House of Representatives. Investigations by BNR earlier revealed that half of her thesis was copied almost word for word.

The state secretary for Long-term Care and Social Affairs announced in an online statement that her thesis has been declared invalid and that the examination committee is retracting her certificate. “This decision is a massive blow for me personally. I completed my studies with the best intentions, but it now appears that significant errors were made. I hold myself very accountable for that and it should never have happened”, Maeijer wrote.

According to the rules

She is allowed to rewrite her thesis at the Erasmus University, and she intends to take advantage of this opportunity. “I seize this chance with both hands. So that I can complete my studies in the way I have always envisioned. Namely, by working hard and adhering to the rules.”

Her degree has not officially been revoked yet. That must be carried out by the university’s administration. The exact conditions for her to regain her degree are still unclear. “The examination board and Maeijer need to discuss this, for example regarding the validity of her courses”, says a spokesperson for the university.

Plagiarism scanner

Maeijer’s plagiarism was revealed in November when BNR scanned the theses of all candidate ministers and state secretaries of the new cabinet for plagiarism. Maeijer’s thesis was the only one found to contain such a significant amount of plagiarism. According to BNR, approximately half of the 69 pages were copied verbatim.