A British university has confirmed that it received a complaint alleging that Iran’s new president plagiarized part of his thesis for the doctorate he obtained in the 1990s.

Iranian activists have analysed passages of Hassan Rowhani’s Glasgow Caledonian University PhD thesis, titled “The Flexibility of Sharia with Reference to the Iranian Experience,” that are a close match to sentences in a book by an Iranian author.

Behdad Morshedi, a London-based writer, said Rowhani appeared to have lifted segments from a book by Mohamad Hashem Kamali, the chairman of Iran’s International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies.

“Mr. Kamali is closely associated with the regime but his book was published in his own name and the extracts are virtually identical,” said Morshedi, a pen name. “We will be submitting a petition calling on the university to cancel the PhD.”

Charles McGhee, a university spokesman, said its staff had received the allegations from another activist in the U.S. and would be looking into the matter.

He said the university library had established that the main body of the thesis referenced Kamali’s book and that the text was cited in the bibliography.

What I do know is Glasgow Caledoninan is not an obvious place for a PhD in a subject dealing with Shia jurisprudence

Two passages in an extract from the 500-page thesis have come under scrutiny. The university published the two-page extract online, but the full thesis was not available.

One sentence appears in identical form in Kamali’s book, Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence: “The Koran is not specific on the precise value of its injunctions and it leaves open the possibility that a command in the Koran may sometimes imply an obligation, a recommendation or a mere permissibility.” A second instance of closely matching sentences has also been cited.

There is doubt over whether Rowhani, who was a high-ranking official in the Islamic Republic during the 1990s, actually attended the university or studied remotely.

Academics said that serious flaws in the work should lead to Rowhani being stripped of his degree.

“I do not know if Mr. Rowhani has engaged in plagiarism or not. What I do know is Glasgow Caledoninan is not an obvious place for a PhD in a subject dealing with Shia jurisprudence or Iranian politics,” said Kaveh Moussavi, an associate fellow at the University of Oxford.

“I do not expect any adverse consequences to flow from this episode. It would however be nice to see Mr. Rowhani give a press conference in English and let the audience decide for themselves whether his English is at the PhD level.”

Rowhani, who will be inaugurated on August 4, did not respond to a request for comment.