College admits lecturer has case to answer on cheating

By Dara Bradley

A Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) investigation has found that one of its lecturers has a case to answer in relation to assisting a student to cheat in a final year exam, the Galway City Tribune can reveal.

GMIT’s Governing Body has been informed that “there was a prima facie case in respect of misconduct to be answered” in regard to how a Masters student in the School of Business and Engineering used a lecturer’s handbook, which contained suggested answers, to cheat in an assessment.

Human Resource Manager (HR) at GMIT, Tony McDonogh, conducted an investigation after the Galway City Tribune in December revealed how a final year student obtained an instructor’s manual – which contained model answers to assessment questions – and used the material to cheat. The instructor’s manual is legitimately accessible by academic staff only.

In a statement this week to this newspaper, GMIT said: “The HR Manager has found there was a prima facie case in respect of misconduct to be answered in this case. The Institutes of Technology Staff Disciplinary Procedure will now be invoked and while this process is ongoing, GMIT is not in a position to comment further.”

A second internal review of the case, this one carried out by the Registrar Michael Hannon found that the initial internal disciplinary committee (plagiarism committee) carried out by the School of Business in February 2010 was wrong to treat the incident as ‘minor’ and should have deemed it a ‘major’ incident.

The college’s statement said: “It is the Registrar’s view, according to the Code of Academic Policy no. 2 on Plagiarism, that the allegation should have been considered as a major incident of plagiarism, and as such should have been dealt with through the Registrar’s Office.

“The School of Business had originally considered the allegation to be a case of minor plagiarism and dealt with it accordingly through the School Plagiarism Committee structure.”

Asked about the consequences for the student involved, who has since graduated even though found guilty of plagiarism, GMIT said it “is not in a position to re-open the matter” because it “has already been dealt with”.

One of the outcomes of the Registrar’s review is the immediate abolishment of all School Plagiarism Committees – the college has also vowed to change its policy on plagiarism, as a result of this newspaper’s public disclosure of the incident.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.