Carnegie Mellon University has rescinded a master’s degree whose controversial awarding in 2004 led to the resignation of the dean of the university’s H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

An internal review committee found the degree had been awarded on the basis of transfer and independent-study credits that far exceeded university limits, and the Board of Trustees voted this week to rescind the degree.

The former dean, Mark G. Wessel, stepped down last summer after the committee alleged that he had bent the rules in approving the credits. According to the newspaper’s account, the committee said Mr. Wessel had acted in the belief that the student’s “experience and qualifications could be valuable” in efforts to market the Heinz School.

The university has not identified the recipient of the degree or the exact field in which it was awarded, citing privacy laws. Mr. Wessel remains a faculty member at the school, and the committee recommended that he retain that post because “this was a singular error by a person of otherwise strong integrity.” It also recommended that the student be given the opportunity to complete the degree. —Charles Huckabee