By Solomon Gabriel Brima
The University of Sierra Leone has dismissed three lecturers, expelled and suspended students embroiled in exam malpractices and other academic crimes.
Mr. Tonya Musa, the director of communications at the University of Sierra Leone in an interview with Salone Fact-Checker confirmed the incident noting the three lecturers from the Institute of Public Administration and Management (IPAM) had been dismissed for changing the fail examination grades of some students.
According to Musa, on the 26th September, 2019, the University Management constituted a special University Investigating Committee which was charged with the responsibility of looking into the allegations of CHANGE OF GRADES by lecturers in the faculties of Information Systems and Technology and Management Sciences.
A week to the reopening of colleges and universities in Sierra Leone, social media was sent into frenzy when posts on WhatsApp and Facebook about the dismissal of lecturers and the rustication and expulsion of students the university authorities said were perpetrators of the ugly academic crime.
A press release from the findings of the investigations from the documented allegations, noted three lecturers from IPAM were found culpable for fraudulently changing grades for students and as a result have been summarily dismissed from their service at the University in line with the provision of the University of Sierra Leone’s Policy on Examination Conduct and Malpractice.
The release further states that the University Management had received report of examination malpractice by students of College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), for which the Vice Chancellor and Principal had set up a committee of investigation.
Following the investigations at COMAHS, according to Mr. Musa, two students were rusticated for one year, five rusticated for two years, and three expelled with immediate effect.
Notwithstanding all this stringent actions taken by the university authorities, those three (3) lecturers may still be investigated by the Anti-Corruption Commission and subsequently charged to court for corruption in academia.