ALMOST two years ago Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, and her minister of education and research, Annette Schavan, were standing next to each other at a trade fair in Hanover. All of Germany was abuzz that day with speculation that Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, a dashing aristocrat who was defence minister, would resign because his university had taken away his doctoral title after discovering plagiarism in his dissertation. Mrs Schavan had professed herself "ashamed" of Mr zu Guttenberg's lapse. Then a text message arrived on the chancellor's phone to say that Mr zu Guttenberg had resigned. She showed it to the education minister, and the two exchanged a gratified smirk. Mrs Schavan is not smiling now. On February 5th a university in Düsseldorf decided to strip another cabinet member of a doctoral title because of plagiarism. And this time around the alleged sinner is Mrs Schavan. Twelve of the 15 council members of the philosophy faculty decided she had "systematically and wilfully" presented other people's ideas as her own in her dissertation on "Person and Conscience." Now what? Resign, of course, bayed the opposition parties and other commentators in an ecstasy of Schadenfreude. But Mrs Schavan, currently on a visit to South Africa, said she would stay and fight the accusations with her lawyers. Her appeal could take a while. So the question is what Mrs Merkel will do. The chancellor would hate to fire Mrs Schavan, who has been unfailingly loyal. She could claim that Mrs Schavan's lapses were less brazen than Mr zu Guttenberg's and occurred long enough ago (33 years) that they count as ancient history. But Mr zu Guttenberg merely ran an army, whereas Mrs Schavan is responsible for education and research in a country that is about to fight an election campaign on the need for high standards in, ahem, education and research. Her political future threatens to be as flimsy as her doctorate.