• Home
• /
• UAE
• /
• Education

UAE: Student sues varsity for cancelling grades over 'cheating'

Abu Dhabi - Student was accused of cheating in an online exam; court directs university to reverse decision to annul results.

---

---

An Abu Dhabi court has overturned a local private university’s decision to annul all exam results of a semester for an engineering student after they accused him of cheating during an online exam last year.

According to official court documents, the second-year student claims the university had cancelled his results after lecturers alleged that he had cheated on his sports engineering exam by turning to ask his younger sister a square root.

The student had received a phone call from his sports engineering professor and the university’s Vice Dean of Student Affairs informing him that an investigation would be launched into the allegations against him.

According to the student, the head of the university’s Student Disciplinary Committee had issued their decision less than a week after being interrogated by them. The committee rejected his appeal and annulled all his second-semester examination results.

Abu Dhabi Court of First Instance earlier ruled to cancel the university’s decision and to oblige the university to pay the fees.

The university appealed the ruling, insisting that it had not abused the student’s rights and had issued its decision after thoroughly investigating the alleged instance of cheating. Management also argued that the imposed punishment was commensurate with the student’s actions.

The appeals court, however, pointed out that the faculty member who alleged the incident being on the disciplinary committee constituted a breach of the guarantees of impartiality and independence that must be available.

On this basis, the court rejected the claims by the university and upheld the first court’s ruling.

ismail@khaleejtimes.com

• Education