The president of a prestigious university has become embroiled in a plagiarism scandal.

Zhou Zude, president of Wuhan University of Technology and a candidate for Chinese Academy of Sciences academician, China's highest academic honor, is alleged to have copied the work of a fellow scientist in a thesis submitted to a national conference.

The thesis, previously published by Chilean scientist Roberto Cardenas, was co-signed by Zhou and his PhD student Xie Ming, China Youth Daily reported yesterday.