On February 9 2006 the Ashesi Judicial Committee (AJC) ruled against a student for plagiarism. The student used sources from several websites that were not acknowledged in his paper for an Expository Writing course. During the hearing the student emphatically stated that the work was his own and denied using internet sources for his paper in spite of the evidence that was presented to him indicating otherwise. As stated in Ashesi’s student handbook plagiarism constitutes academic misconduct.
Sanctions:
- The student received a failing grade for the Expository Writing Course
- The student was required to pay for and re-take the Expository Writing course in August 2006
- The student was suspended with immediate effect for two semesters and may be readmitted in January 2007
- The student was offered readmission in January 2007 contingent on a written apology to Ms. Nana Yaa Ofori-Atta, the instructor for the Expository Writing Course.
A copy of this letter was placed on his record and would be deleted upon the student’s successful graduation from Ashesi.
Typically plagiarism in a course leads to a failure in the course. However some members of the AJC felt that his continuous denial (lying to university officials) and a refusal to show remorse constituted a serious offence hence the suspension meted out to him. The two semester suspension came into effect because he would have been unable to take the courses offered if he returned after the first semester. He needed to take pre-requisite courses during his semester of suspension to take the courses offered the following semester.
