{UAH} Mak staff sell marks through Facebook- ivory tower has gone to dogs??

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Mak staff sell marks through Facebook

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Makerere University students at the last graduation ceremony in January. Photo by Faiswal Kasirye  

By  PATIENCE AHIMBISIBWE

Posted  Saturday, May 16  2015 at  01:00

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KAMPALA- Makerere University has uncovered a racket in which university staff sell examination marks to failed students through Facebook link and mobile money network.

Printouts show how some students submitted their registration numbers and lists of course units to the staff at the university data rooms to give them better marks than they actually scored in the examinations.

A university source told Saturday Monitor that while Makerere University publicly down-plays the problem, it is internally digging deeper to get to the core of the racket that involves some top administrators.

Racket netted
Some students in the scheme were netted by the university administrators and investigators and asked to surrender their passwords to their social media accounts.

A printout of their social media accounts revealed the trail of their correspondences with some officials in charge of the university's Senate data base and how the original marks were altered for better grades.

Senate is the university's highest academic decision making body and approves the final marks and grading for students before the graduation list is confirmed.

A Facebook account bearing names of Sultan Ed Eddy, who claims to be a student at the university, was linked to a one Jack Mathew, alleged to be working at the university to give him higher marks. Subsequently, Eddy became an agent, linking other students from the Faculty of Economics and Management to Mathew for the same purpose.

"I have access to data. In fact, I can fix missing papers and marks. If you have a retake, I can help you get rid of it by giving you any mark above 50 per cent. I can also improve on CGPA (Cumulative Grade Point Average) if you want for all faculties except ICT," Mathew shared with his clients on his social media account on June 21, assuring them that they can only pay after confirming that work has successfully been done.

"When I change the results, the change also reflects online (ar.mak.ac.ug, the university website) so she can confirm from there. But the best proof is to get a testimonial from the registrar. If she won't be satisfied with the online confirmation only, we may have to wait till results come out," Mathew wrote to a student through the Facebook account.

A fortnight later, Eddy reappeared with a client under student number 209011161 and registration number (09/u/3770/eve) from the Institute of Statistics, who wanted results for his 13 course units altered.

Excited at the money offer, Mathew asked whether it was cash. He indicated that though he charges Shs300, 000 per paper worked upon, he could settle for Shs100, 000 since the papers were many.

Saturday Monitor verified the several registration numbers shared during this Facebook conversation and found they exist on the Makerere University website. For example, the names registered under this account are Allan Busingye.

In the Facebook conversation, the papers which he wanted changed reflected marks ranging between 55 per cent and 75 per cent at the time Saturday Monitor logged onto his student account on the university website. Some had a sign RT to mean retake.

Seen alterations
After the alteration, some of the scores read thus: MTH1201 Calculus II (62%) but indicates a retake (RT) on it, MTH 2193 Differential Equations (65%), MTH2104 Linear Algebra II (63%), SAS2101 Mathematics of Finance II (57%) RT, SA2102 Life Contingencies I (68%), STA2101 Probability Theory II (63%), ECO 2201 Macro Economics (70%), SAS 2202 Life Contingencies II (69%), STA 2210 Linear Programming I (55%), Accounting II (60%)RT, SAS 3116 Management Accounting (70%), STA 3102 Multivariate Analysis (67%) and STA3103 National Accounting and Income Analysis (71%).

To stay safe, Mathew objected to the suggestion of meeting his client physically and preferred to stay online unless it became absolutely necessary to meet physically. Eddy shared his mobile number as 0773032207 and payment was to be made by mobile money transfer on number 0788269361.

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