TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — National Taiwan University (NTU) approved new rules Friday (Oct. 14) to tighten supervision of students’ theses after plagiarism allegations against election candidates.

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for mayor of Taoyuan City, Lin Chih-chien (林智堅), withdrew from the race in August when NTU said it found evidence of plagiarism in his master’s degree — even though he denied the allegations. A number of other candidates in the Nov. 26 local elections have faced similar accusations at other universities.

Master’s and Ph.D. students will have to present a declaration confirming the originality of their thesis, according to the NTU decision approved by the college Friday. The document will have to mention a percentage figure for the level of similarity between the thesis and other content, with each NTU institute deciding what the maximum limit can be, CNA reported.

The student will have to bear legal responsibility in the case of forgery and plagiarism, or if they have paid another individual to write the thesis in their place. NTU said it would also investigate the responsibility of the professor who supervised the student’s thesis if there was an accusation of serious plagiarism, according to a CNA report.