Thammasat University Faculty of Law issues a statement regarding the revocation of a doctorate degree in Justice Administration awarded to a prominent individual.
10 Feb 2026 GMT+7Thammasat University Faculty of LawStatement regarding media reports about the revocation of a doctorate degree in Justice Administration.
Some media outlets have widely reported that the Thammasat University Council resolved to revoke the doctorate degree in Justice Administration awarded to the respondent, a graduate of the Faculty of Law's program.
The Faculty of Law at Thammasat University wishes to clarify the facts and its actions in this matter to provide the public with accurate, complete, and fair information, summarized as follows.
1. Dissertation Examination Process The Faculty of Law appointed dissertation advisors and examination committees according to Thammasat University regulations on graduate studies. The examination committee comprised experts knowledgeable in the relevant field and topic. Their duties included evaluating the candidate’s understanding of the subject matter, accuracy of academic content, analysis and synthesis of data, and appropriateness of research methodology. The graduate office handled verifying dissertation formatting.
Students were responsible for preparing dissertations that strictly adhered to academic standards and ethics, including self-checking for plagiarism. Additionally, the faculty required students to verify plagiarism before submitting their dissertations for examination using the university's TU e-Thesis system. Plagiarism detection requires extensive and diverse academic databases covering document types, languages, sources, and publication dates, as well as processing systems that compare texts to indicate similarity levels. While plagiarism detection tools support academic review, students must strictly uphold academic ethics.
However, the plagiarism check for the respondent's work using TU e-Thesis showed a 1.29% similarity rate, below the faculty’s threshold requiring advisors’ written review.
Therefore, the advisor and program director permitted the dissertation examination, and the examination committee assessed the respondent’s knowledge according to the program’s standards, as with other students.
The Faculty of Law prioritizes selecting qualified advisors and examination committees for all student research levels—dissertations, theses, or independent studies—and ensures examination procedures meet academic standards and ethics.
Nonetheless, the faculty acknowledges limitations in plagiarism detection systems, which cannot cover all academic databases, possibly missing some copied content. Such limitations do not justify avoiding or violating academic ethics by students.
2. Fact-Finding Investigation After receiving complaints regarding the dissertation, the Faculty of Law did not ignore them and conducted fact-finding by hearing all involved parties: the complainant, respondent, and dissertation examination committee.
Upon completing the faculty-level investigation, the complaint was forwarded to Thammasat University to appoint a fact-finding committee according to relevant laws, regulations, and procedures, leading to consideration by the University Council.
3. Measures to Prevent Future Plagiarism Issues Recognizing the importance of academic ethics, the Faculty of Law has implemented additional measures to prevent future academic plagiarism, as follows.
(1) Enhancing plagiarism detection by mandating the use of international standard tools, such as Turnitin alongside the university's TU e-Thesis system, as a compulsory step before dissertation, thesis, or independent study examinations. Further checks occur before research submissions enter the thesis repository, evaluating not only similarity percentages but also qualitative aspects.
(2) Strengthening the role of academic ethics review by requiring dissertation, thesis, and independent study committees to consider plagiarism reports from both Turnitin and TU e-Thesis alongside content and methodology, emphasizing academic ethics as part of research evaluation.
(3) Developing knowledge and awareness of academic standards and ethics by mandating training on academic writing, referencing, research ethics, and responsible use of digital and AI tools at the graduate level. Completion of this training is required before defending dissertations, theses, or independent studies.
The Faculty of Law expresses regret for this incident’s impact on the complainant and public trust. It acknowledges the consequences and affirms commitment to uphold academic and ethical standards and the value of Thammasat University degrees, treating all individuals equally.
The Faculty believes maintaining academic standards requires serious, transparent processes and continuous improvement of verification systems. It pledges to act responsibly to preserve public confidence and the university’s honor.