Many former students from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) are still waiting for their academic transcripts after making official appeals for alterations made to their marks.
Prompted by the recent post on social media of the UPNG scandal where students paid cash to get high marks, former students who want to remain anonymous say that they are victims of some major syndicate that operates at the University that alters and manipulates the students academic marks, and the recent post is a wake-up call.
A student who scored Higher Distinctions (HD) in her accumulative results but was awarded a lower grading lodge a complaint in 2014 and is still waiting for her transcript.
Another former student said;
I am a victim of this failing system. We were told that the grades were awarded automatically by the IT system, however many of us realized that there are too many errors in the system. Not just with one but multiple grades being distorted or not awarded to the courses taken.
I scored two High Distinctions and one Distinction which was awarded by my lecturer. The IT people manipulated my marks and now my transcript is left with blanks including a poor grade.
They told me to appeal and they will fix it but those were all lies. I appealed and waited for more than a year and nothing has changed.
All my hard work washed down the drain, especially when someone’s using them to get jobs.
Another student who graduated in 2022 said her marks are not on the University’s academic transcript.
Our marks are still missing and I wonder, how I managed to graduate.
2022 male graduate
Another female students said;
I graduated with some of my course mates that never attended class or have never completed major projects. Some students who were seen once or twice in classes, graduated with GPA of three and above. They were awarded Higher Distinction and Distinction while few students including myself graduated without the results of my performance on a transcript and I still wonder where my results are, and wish the University answered to this.
My transcript is a lifetime document that will take me to my future jobs, studies or other trainings and UPNG needs to explain this. The marks do not give credit to the commitment I had in my studies.
I was referred to IT to do follow up on my course marks by my lecturer back in 2018. And since then, I have never received any results at all.
Another said she performed well in one of the courses and expected a good grading but was given a Conceded Pass. This is the last grading before you are failed in any course.
Surprisingly another student in the class who never attended a class, missed multiple tests and assessments scored a Distinction.
When I was trying to work it out, a senior student told me that if I had money to pay, he would get someone to help change my grading. I refused and instead chose to follow the process. I wrote a letter to the SHSS board and asked to see the dean. I showed her a copy of my transcript. I was told they would look into it but nothing has eventuated from the since and this CP now stains my transcript.
former UPNG SHSS student