University of Galway professor exposed over fake doctorate claim
Associate professor in University of Galway Tom Felle has been exposed by RTE as claiming to have a PhD qualification
An associate professor at the University of Galway who specialises in fake news has been exposed by RTÉ as having falsely claimed to hold a doctorate.
A report by RTE’s Prime Time states that a PhD Tom Felle claimed to have obtained from City St George's in London in 2022 was not real.
Mr Felle was the head of the Department of Journalism and Media at the University of Galway until last year. He previously worked at the University of Limerick, particularly around 2012, and was also referred to as the Head of Journalism there.
At that time, he was not using the title of Dr and did not hold or claim to have a doctorate qualification.
Mr Felle has relied on this doctorate qualification and been referred to as Dr Felle in academic papers, in Oireachtas reports and elsewhere over the past decade.
When contacted by Prime Time, Mr Felle said that he obtained the PhD by prior publication, however the London university confirmed that between 2021 and 2023 none of the four journalism PhDs were awarded by prior publication, as Mr Felle claimed his was.
In 2017, Tom Felle wrote an opinion piece in the Limerick Leader in reference to the Thorn report titled ‘Truth and transparency benefit us all: Academics should have stood up in face of UL issues.’
The opinion piece talks about the wasting of public money and how important truth and transparency are.
In the piece Mr Felle references academic freedom and said that lecturers have “to be critical, to challenge consensus, to shine a light in dark places and to call out hypocrisy and wrongdoing.”
In the article, Mr Felle wrote: “Truth is uncomfortable but we all benefit from full transparency and accountability.”
On the University of Galway staff listing website page, Mr Felle is listed, but not as Dr Felle and the profile page for him is cited as ‘Page not found.’
He was awarded the prestigious Fulbright Irish scholar in residence in 2023. He is also listed as a judge for this year's prestigious Irish Journalism Awards.