University staffer leaves after claiming PhD she never had

Karen Hartshorn. Photo / Supplied

A University of Otago staff member has left after it emerged she did not have the PhD from Cambridge University she claimed.

Karen Hartshorn was a science communicator in the internationally acclaimed Dunedin Multi-Disciplinary Heath and Development Unit. Her role was to use Otago science research discoveries to write academic papers and newspaper and magazine articles.

She left the university recently, about two weeks after a tip to the Otago Daily Times that she had inflated her qualifications.

The university will not confirm whether she resigned or was dismissed.

English-born Ms Hartshorn does hold a BA from prestigious US university Harvard. She was also a PhD student in geology in the earth sciences department at the University of Cambridge in Britain for four years.

But she never completed her Cambridge qualification. Unlike successful PhD candidates, her name does not appear on the PhD graduate's roll on the university's library catalogue or in annual reports from the earth sciences department.

Responding to inquiries, Nicholas Saffell from Cambridge's office of external affairs and communications said in an email Ms Hartshorn submitted a revised PhD thesis in September 2004 which was sent to the examiners, but she had not yet had a viva. A viva is the oral examination required to complete the degree process.

Ms Hartshorn's situation has some similarities to that of Mary Anne Thompson, the former head of the New Zealand immigration service, who resigned earlier this year after it was discovered she did not have the doctorate from the London School of Economics she claimed.

Ms Thompson is still before the courts facing three charges of using a fraudulent CV to obtain public service jobs in 1989, 1998 and 2004.

Ms Hartshorn did not claim to hold a doctorate when she obtained her first job in Dunedin in 2006 as director of the New Zealand International Science Festival, the woman who employed her, Dame Elizabeth Hanan, said on Monday.

But at some point Ms Hartshorn began saying she had a PhD and using the title Dr. In a March, 2007 interview she said she had a PhD in geology from Cambridge and she was referred to as Dr Hartshorn.

She was also listed as holding that qualification and title in the university's 2008 and 2009 staff lists, and has been referred to as Dr in official documents since 2007.

Ms Hartshorn was not available for comment.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES