The University of Fort Hare’s Faculty of Law is facing mounting pressure from student organisations following allegations that students were involved in marking fellow students’ examination scripts, prompting calls for affected assessments to be remarked.
The controversy emerged last week when three student organisations — SAWLA SC UFH, NADEL SC UFH and BLASC SC UFH — issued a joint statement condemning the alleged practice.
The organisations said circulating images and voice recordings suggested that students had been allowed to assess each other’s examination scripts, describing the allegations as a serious breach of confidentiality, fairness and academic integrity.
“Examination scripts contain students’ academic work and should be marked by lecturers or authorised academic staff,” the organisations said.
“Allowing students to mark their peers’ work compromises the integrity of the assessment process.”
They described the alleged conduct as a serious oversight failure within a faculty tasked with training future legal professionals.
Following the allegations, student leaders met the faculty’s head of department to seek clarity on the matter.
The student bodies demanded urgent intervention from the faculty and dean’s office, calling for an explanation of how such a practice could have been allowed and for an investigation to ensure all assessments complied with university policy.
In an update circulated on Friday, the Students Law Council said a meeting with the head of department had clarified that, in terms of general rule 6 (GR6), an “internal examiner” refers only to a fully qualified academic.
“Undergraduates or postgraduates are not authorised to mark scripts, both formative assessment tests and examination scripts, as alleged.
“This therefore concludes that the students were not authorised in any way to mark the scripts,” the council said.
The council further alleged that the faculty had already met the lecturer responsible for the module in question.
“The only remaining step in the internal procedure is to interview two postgraduate students who were unavailable at the time of the meeting,” it said.
UFH spokesperson JP Roodt said on Friday that the university had noted the allegations circulating on social media claiming that students were used to mark examination scripts.
“UFH wishes to reassure students, staff, parents and the public that the university has an established assessment policy designed to safeguard the integrity of its academic processes,” Roodt said.
“Any alleged deviation from any university policy is treated with the utmost seriousness.”
Roodt confirmed that the university had launched an internal investigation to verify the authenticity of the images and information being circulated, establish the facts and determine whether any faculty, department or individual was involved.
“At this stage, no finding has been made linking the matter to any specific faculty, including the Faculty of Law.
“UFH urges the public to avoid speculation while the investigation is under way,” he said.
The student organisations said they had also raised concerns about credibility and fairness in other modules but had reached a dead end due to a lack of evidence that students had marked examination scripts in other courses.
It has formally requested to be included in management’s investigative meetings to observe how the process unfolded and to ensure accountability.
Should the request be denied, the Students Law Council said, it would approach the Student Representative Council (SRC) to secure student representation in the process.
Meanwhile, the South African Students Congress (Sasco) in the Eastern Cape has strongly condemned the conduct of some of its own SRC deployees in relation to the controversy.
In a statement issued on Friday, Sasco revealed that its SRC treasurer-general and the KuGompo City campus academic officer had allegedly been involved in discussions concerning fellow students’ examination scripts and marks.
It said this breached confidentiality and undermined the integrity of the academic process.
“The [alleged] actions of the [implicated] SRC deployees are a betrayal of the trust placed in them by fellow students,” Sasco Eastern Cape provincial chair Tshepo Buthelezi said.
Sasco described the conduct as not only morally wrong but also contrary to the organisation’s constitution.
The organisation convened an emergency meeting of its provincial working committee on Friday night and resolved to institute internal disciplinary proceedings against all members implicated in the matter.
Buthelezi said disciplinary measures could include the dissolution of branch leadership positions pending the outcome of investigations.
He said the implicated SRC members would also be recalled from their positions.
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