Former Rector of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) Professor Dymph van den Boom, who recently became a topic of discussion, is also an advisor to the board of the Stichting Katholieke Universiteit. She advises on various matters, including academic integrity. For the time being, the board does not feel the necessity to terminate this advisory position.

Professor of pedagogics Dymph van den Boom, who was interim Dean at the Erasmus University Rotterdam until last week, came under fire following an article (in Dutch) published in NRC last Monday. A reporter of the newspaper analysed her speeches and PhD thesis and found extracts that had been copied from others, without acknowledgement of sources.

According to NRC, eight of Van den Boom’s ten Dies addresses she held during her time at UvA contained plagiarised texts. The reporter also found copied texts and erroneous quotes in one third of the pages of her PhD thesis. In NRC, Van den Boom denies having made any mistakes.

Integrity

In Nijmegen, Van den Boom is advisor to the Stichting Katholieke Universiteit (SKU), which supervises the Executive Boards of Radboud University and Radboud university medical center. An annual report from 2017 reveals that she advises in the field of Education and Research. She was a member of the Education and Research Committee from 1 July of that year.

From the aforementioned annual report: ‘[…], the committee discussed matters such as preparations for the institutional quality assurance test, performance in the field of scientific research, the results of the research inspections, the development of student numbers and the topic of academic integrity.’

This last subject was at the heart of Van den Boom’s policy as Rector at UvA. NRC quotes her in an interview with Vrij Nederland: ‘Those who imitate will be caught.’

Advisory position

Berthe Maat, secretary of the SKU, confirms that Van den Boom acts as an advisor to the Stichting. ‘Miss Van den Boom is not employed by the SKU but has an advisory position for which she is not remunerated’, Maat says. ‘As advisor, she participates in the Education and Research Committee of the SKU board and functions as a confidant to the Executive Board.’

The SKU is not taking any steps as of yet. ‘We know that UvA has appointed an investigative committee’, she says. ‘We shall await their findings. The SKU does not see fit to terminate the advisory assignment of a valued advisor based on a single article.’