University launches investigation into alleged plagiarism in thesis of PVV State Secretary Vicky Maeijer

The Examination Board of the Erasmus School of Law announced on Thursday that it is launching an investigation into alleged plagiarism in the master’s thesis of State Secretary Vicky Maeijer. The investigation follows reports by BNR. The PVV politician risks losing her academic title.

Maeijer is State Secretary for Long-Term and Social Care. According to BNR, she copied hundreds of passages from other sources while writing her master’s thesis. The news outlet used plagiarism detection software, the same that is employed by universities, to analyse the thesis. The results showed that over half the text was derived from other sources. While Maeijer cites most of these in her references, 32 per cent of the copied material lacks quotation marks. According to BNR, this gives the impression that the passages were written by Maeijer herself.

No statute of limitations

The Higher Education and Research Act (WHW) does not include a statute of limitations for fraud. The Examination Board stated that it has a legal duty to enforce rules on academic misconduct. “The board will handle this case as it would any other, without distinguishing between students and alumni or between prominent and non-prominent individuals.” If the investigation confirms a concrete suspicion of plagiarism, those involved will be heard before a decision is made. A univeristy spokesperson said it is not yet clear how long the investigation will take. If plagiarism is confirmed, Maeijer could lose her diploma, the spokesperson said.

At BNR’s request, three experts reviewed the thesis. Two of them found the evidence of academic fraud highly convincing. “The thesis is largely the result of clever copy-pasting from various online sources”, said Bernt Hugenholtz, emeritus professor of information law. “If I had been the supervisor, I would never have approved the thesis in this form.” Only Gijs van Oenen, chair of the Rotterdam Philosophy Examination Board, acknowledged the extensive copying but did not consider it sufficient to label it plagiarism.

'Best intentions'

Maeijer completed her master’s in International & European Public Law in 2009. She declined to provide substantive answers to BNR’s questions about her thesis. “I worked hard to complete my studies”, she said. “I wrote my thesis in good faith and with the best intentions.” Maeijer’s thesis focused on the fight against terrorism and the protection of fundamental rights in the European Union. She received a grade of 6.5 for the work.