TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) became the latest politician to be stripped of a university degree following plagiarism allegations, reports said Saturday (Dec. 3).

Tsai, who ran for mayor of Keelung City in the Nov. 26 elections but lost, said he had been informed that National Taipei University (NTPU) had decided to cancel his Ph. D. degree.

While he had not yet received official notification, he said he would start the procedure to file an appeal against the decision, the Liberty Times reported. He also apologized on his Facebook page for the trouble the case had caused his teachers and school.

According to Tsai, he had spent 10 years working on the thesis, collecting information and conducting field research. Only 2% of the content showed similarities to other material, he said.

During a meeting with the NTPU review committee, he had apologized for having forgotten to add footnotes and references for part of his thesis. However, in the end, the committee ruled he had been guilty of plagiarism and decided to strip him of his Ph.D. title, Tsai said.

He added that his studies at NTPU focused on gaining knowledge about urban development and urban renewal, which he found useful as a member of Keelung City Council.

On Friday (Dec. 2), Taoyuan City Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) announced that National Taiwan University (NTU) had canceled his master’s degree over plagiarism issues. He was one of the most senior politicians from several parties to have faced similar accusations during the run-up to the Nov. 26 local elections.