University acts on professor who took Saudi university cash

A Wageningen University professor has been told he may not lead any research projects for two years after admitting that he had for years named a Saudi university as his main employer in academic publications, reports Dutch News.nl.

Vincenzo Fogliano described the King Saud University as his primary place of employment for several years in return for money. The €146,000 (US$158,000) in cash did not benefit him personally but was used by PhD students to fund food technology research.

Earlier this month it emerged that the Saudi universities had been using foreign academics to try to boost their position in world rankings, both in the Netherlands and in Spain. Wageningen’s own research has shown that six of its academics had been approached, but that Fogliano was the only one to cooperate. He admitted taking the money to the Volkskrant.
Full report on the Dutch News.nl site