SINGAPORE — Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is investigating one of its tenured professors following online allegations that he had plagiarised his former student's final year project in a research paper. 

On Tuesday (July 25), a user on online forum Reddit claimed that a 2018 paper published by Associate Professor Qu Jingyi is similar to a paper by then NTU student Wang Yueming written in 2014. 

Without referring to specific excerpts, the Redditor, whose identity is unclear, wrote: “(The two papers) are very similar and almost identical in many parts.”

According to NTU's website, Assoc Prof Qu joined the university in 2010 and is currently the Head of Chinese and Deputy Director of Centre for Chinese Language and Culture at NTU's School of Humanities.

He is the author of more than 100 published works in Chinese and English, including 49 journal articles and four books.

He holds a doctorate degree from Peking University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has received scholarships and awards, such as the Fulbright Scholarship and NTU’s Nanyang Education Award.

Responding to TODAY’s queries on Thursday, an NTU spokesman said: “The university is committed to the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct, and takes allegations of academic misconduct very seriously.  

“The School of Humanities is investigating the allegations, and it would be inappropriate to comment further while the investigation is ongoing.”

The paper by Mr Wang, titled “Escapism in the literary works of Ruan Ji”, was his final year project, and Assoc Prof Qu was his supervisor. 

National daily The Straits Times reported that more than 50 per cent of Assoc Prof Qu’s paper, written in English, appears to be a “direct translation” of Mr Wang’s paper, written in Chinese, with no attribution to the latter.  

TODAY was not able to independently verify the plagiarism allegations made on Reddit. 

Assoc Prof Qu’s paper, titled “Escape as a Mode of Existence: On Ruan Ji’s Escapism Complex”, has since become inaccessible on Academia.edu, an online repository of academic papers. 

TODAY has reached out to Assoc Prof Qu and Mr Wang for comments.