Nust to hear 14 forgery cases

THE Namibia University of Science and Technology will hold a disciplinary hearing tomorrow to hear 14 cases of academic forgery.

Forty Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) students are facing expulsion over forging their academic transcripts last year.

The university’s acting director for marketing and communications, Jordaania Andima, last week said the institution found evidence that several students had forged academic transcripts to gain services at the university.

“The students reprinted their academic records and used tools such as Photoshop to artificially increase their grades. All of the evidence was presented to the registrar and the director of student services,” she said.

Students who make themselves guilty of academic dishonesty are brought before a disciplinary committee and may be suspended from studying for a certain period or may be expelled from the institution.

Andima said those measures allow the university to protect its students and its academic reputation as a premier tertiary institution.

“Nust takes all cases of academic and non-academic misconduct very seriously. All forms of academic dishonesty are viewed as misconduct under the university’s student rules and regulations,” she said.

According to the university’s student rules and regulations, if the registrar/dean of students (now called director of student services) believes that there are reasonable grounds for a charge of misconduct against a student and that the conduct of the student concerned is serious, a written charge shall be formulated and a hearing shall be convened by the students disciplinary committee.

This disciplinary committee is made up of members of the university staff, both academic and administrative, including a student representative.

In this instance, both the registrar and the director believed that transgressions had occurred. This was their sole involvement in the disciplinary process and they have no further input in the case.

Should the students be found guilty, Andima said, the matter may also be referred to the relevant authorities, as forgery is also a criminal offence in Namibia, along with sanctions up to and including expulsion from the university.

“The students may continue their academic journey at Nust until proven guilty or innocent,” she added.

Andima said while there are some instances where falsification or alteration of documents have previously happened, Nust does not tolerate any misrepresentations of credentials or documents by a student or applicant of past or current academic programmes, degrees, or professional accomplishments.

“In the case of external students applying to Nust, the university has robust structures in place along with verification agencies with whom it confirms authentication of all documents. The university rejects admission and reports the offence to the awarding body,” she said.

For internal Nust students, she said, the cases are brought before a constituted disciplinary committee.