Liviu-Marian Pop (born 10 May 1974) is a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n politician. He was a very controversial Romanian interim

Education Minister An education minister (sometimes minister of education) is a position in the governments of some countries responsible for dealing with educational matters. Where known, the government department, ministry, or agency that develops policy and deli ...

in the cabinet of

Victor Ponta Victor Viorel Ponta (; born 20 September 1972) is a Romanian politician and jurist who served as Prime Minister of Romania from 2012 to 2015. He was president of the Social Democratic Party (Romania), Social Democratic Party (PSD) from 2010 to ...

. He played a significant role during the plagiarism controversy involving Prime Minister Victor Ponta. A committee responsible for validating academic titles analyzed Ponta's doctoral thesis and unanimously concluded that plagiarism had occurred, recommending the withdrawal of his doctoral degree. In response, interim Education Minister Liviu Pop (PSD) challenged the committee’s authority and rejected its findings, arguing that the session lacked a legal quorum. Notably, Pop had signed an order to reorganize the committee the previous day, but due to procedural timing, the order only took effect during the session in which the thesis was being reviewed. Another committee, subordinated to the Education Ministry, later found that Ponta did not commit plagiarism. On July 27, 2016 the (''Consiliul Național de Atestare a Titlurilor, Diplomelor și Certificatelor Universitare'') — reformed by the new Education Ministry — reconfirmed the plagiarism verdict, subsequently requesting the withdrawal of Ponta's doctoral title. Pop is also known for making very embarrassing grammar, spelling and logical mistakes, for example misspelling the word "knee" in Romanian ("genunche" instead of "genunchi"), or that "mistakes can be fixed, while errors cannot" ("greșelile se pot corecta, erorile nu"), or that "12th grade students have been in school for 17-18 years" (" ..Vă place cum arăta școala, când ați intrat acum 18 ani sau 17 ani? Atunci ați intrat în clasa I”). In 2018 a mistake was discovered in a mathematical manual published by the Ministry of Education. It stated that the number 9 is larger than the number 12. In defense Pop (graduated from the faculty of mathematics and informatics at

Babeș-Bolyai University The Babeș-Bolyai University ( , , commonly known as UBB) is a public research university located in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Established in 1581 as Academia Claudiopolitana, it underwent several reorganizations over the centuries, eventually taking ...

Cluj-Napoca Cluj-Napoca ( ; ), or simply Cluj ( , ), is a city in northwestern Romania. It is the second-most populous city in the country and the seat of Cluj County. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest (), Budapest () and Belgrade ( ...

) publicly argued that this could be the case in another number system, for example base 5. With basic mathematical knowledge however it can easily be proven that this is impossible.

References

Living people 1974 births People from Vișeu de Sus Ministers of education of Romania Babeș-Bolyai University alumni Social Democratic Party (Romania) politicians {{Romania-politician-stub