The Ministry of Education and Science recommended depriving the ex-director of the Ural Institute of Management RANEPA of the candidate’s degree

The dissertation council at the Tyumen Industrial University recommended that the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation deprive the former director of the Ural Institute of Management of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation (UIU RANEPA) Dmitry Repin of the academic degree of Candidate of Sociological Sciences. “Illegal borrowings” were found in his scientific work. Mr. Repin in 2018 became the youngest head of a university in Yekaterinburg – at the time of his appointment he was 31 years old. If the Higher Attestation Commission supports the decisions of the Tyumen dissertation council, the question will arise of depriving Mr. Repin of his doctorate.

Last summer, co-founder of the Dissernet project Andrei Rostovtsev called on the Russian Ministry of Education and Science to deprive Dmitry Repin of his academic degree. Mr. Rostovtsev accused ex-director of the RANEPA Institute for Unauthorized Borrowing of fragments of other people’s works when writing a dissertation: “The overwhelming majority of borrowings do not contain references to the authors and sources of borrowings, which is confirmed by the documents and materials attached to the application.”

In 2011, Dmitry Repin graduated from RANEPA with a degree in state and municipal management. The graduate worked in the Department of Development of Professional Education of the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia, and then in various departments of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. Thus, in 2018–2019, Mr. Repin headed the Ural Institute of Management RANEPA, being the youngest head of the university in Yekaterinburg – at the time of his appointment he was 34 years old. In November 2019 he moved for the position of advisor to the rector of the academy. The RANEPA website states that Mr. Repin currently works as Deputy Director of the Institute of Management and Regional Development.

Dmitry Repin defended his PhD thesis “Social Technologies in the Employment Management System for Graduates of Russian Institutions of Higher Professional Education” in 2012 at the St. Petersburg State University of Economics. In 2017 he became a Doctor of Sociological Sciences.

The dissertation council at the Tyumen Industrial University, having analyzed Dmitry Repin’s candidate’s thesis, actually found in it “borrowings made in violation of the order of their use.”

In particular, illegal borrowing of material was revealed in 30 of the 172 pages of the work. The dissertation council recognized the arguments of Professor Andrei Rostovtsev as “substantially justified” and recommended that the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation deprive Dmitry Repin of the academic degree of Candidate of Sociological Sciences and invalidate his diploma of Candidate of Sociological Sciences. The decision was unanimously supported by 18 meeting participants in an open vote.

In a conversation with Kommersant, Dmitry Repin called the accusations unfounded.

“On the Dissernet website it is stated that it is alleged plagiarism, the fact of which has not been proven. On some pages of the work, these are incorrectly formatted borrowings, and links to all authors are indicated in the work,” he explained. According to Mr. Repin, the decision of the dissertation council is advisory in nature and precedes further consideration of the issue by the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC) under the Ministry of Education and Science of Russia.

“The work should have been checked when it was first submitted to the dissertation council in St. Petersburg, and then accepted for defense,” political scientist Sergei Moshkin said in a conversation with Kommersant. According to him, “such rapid defenses and short pauses between candidate and doctoral dissertations (as in the case of Mr. Repin.— “Kommersant”), as a rule, immediately arouse suspicion.” Sergei Moshkin noted that if the Higher Attestation Commission supports the decision of the Tyumen dissertation council, the question will arise of depriving Mr. Repin of his Doctor of Science degree.

Vasily Alekseev, Ekaterinburg