An independent panel has concluded that West Virginia University administrators erred in retroactively awarding a degree to the daughter of the state’s governor, according to a source quoted in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The panel found that the governor’s daughter, Heather M. Bresch, did not earn the M.B.A. she received, the newspaper said.

The Post-Gazette’s inquiry into the degree awarded to Ms. Bresch, a top executive at the pharmaceutical company Mylan, followed a Securities and Exchange Commission filing last year in which Mylan included a short biography of Ms. Bresch. The document said she had received an M.B.A. from West Virginia University.

Reporters at the newspaper called the university to confirm the degree, and were initially told that Ms. Bresch remained several credits short of an M.B.A. Administrators later said she had obtained the degree, raising concerns about whether she had enjoyed favorable treatment, especially since the university’s president, Michael S. Garrison, worked directly with Ms. Bresch for several years when he served as a lobbyist for Mylan, whose owner is a major university benefactor. Mr. Garrison and Ms. Bresch also were classmates at the university.

In an interview two weeks ago with the Associated Press, Ms. Bresch insisted that she had earned the degree, after receiving academic credit for her workplace experience.

The report of the five-member panel has not been made public. Federal privacy laws may prevent its release if it deals with the academic record of a student. Ms. Bresch has told university officials they do not have her permission to release her records, according to the Post-Gazette. —JJ Hermes

Update: For more on the report, see an article in Thursday’s Chronicle.