SA varsity to expel students it claims were corruptly enrolled by stateless Nigerian professor

Nigeria Abroad

South Africa’s University of Fort Hare is set to deregister an additional seven master’s degree students in public administration who were supervised by Economics professor, Edwin Ijeoma.

Ijeoma is being tried in the country for allegations that include bigamy, theft, and admission fraud at the institution. The academic who renounced his Nigerian citizenship to become South African resigned amid the scandal.

South Africa has since revoked his citizenship, rendering him stateless.

The university confirmed Friday that the seven were part of a group of 20 students who were under investigation for allegedly being admitted to the university without having met the minimum requirements.

The seven students are politicians and government officials, whose studies were funded by the government, a South African news outlet reports.

University spokesperson JP Roodt declined to disclose the students’ names, but said the university was at an advanced stage of the second phase of a qualifications audit for post-graduate students in the Department of Public Administration.

He said the investigation aimed to ensure the integrity of university admission governance systems at this department.

Roodt said the names formed part of a report to be tabled before the university’s senate.

“The report, based on a qualification verification exercise, will be presented at a forthcoming senate meeting. The report was reviewed and approved by the Management and Commerce Faculty Research and Higher Degrees Committee last week,” said Roodt.

He said the qualification verification exercise included reviewing each student’s prior qualifications against the entry requirements during their first year of registration for the degree.

For those missing qualifications, the university contacted the students to request submission of the missing qualifications or evidence of having been approved for admission through recognition of prior learning, added Roodt.

Roodt said the findings of the investigation established that several students who Ijeoma admitted were not in possession of minimum entry requirements for postgraduate programmes in Public Administration with an emphasis on the Master of Public Administration.

This programme is designed for officials employed in the government sector or for individuals who planned to focus on public administration.

Roodt said:

“The University of Fort Hare is acting swiftly and responsibly and applying the necessary resolutions, in line with university policies and rules, to deal with the fallout of the Ijeoma admissions scandal. Our university community remains deeply disappointed in the unethical conduct of the former employee.”

A South African politician, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane, who Ijeoma supervised, was earlier deregistered from the university for being irregularly admitted for a master’s programme.

The university said it did not have Mabuyane’s recognition of prior learning.

Mabuyane is challenging his deregistration.