UKZN suspends several medical school staffers over irregular student admissions

DURBAN - The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) said that it had suspended several staff members at its medical school after being singled out in a probe looking into a pay-for-placement scheme at the institution.

For years, the institution has faced allegations of fraudulent student admissions and a probe has revealed that deserving students may have been denied highly sought-after spaces due to corruption.

The university has confirmed to Eyewitness News that its information technology system was previously compromised by what it called a group of dishonest staff members.

A leaked 2016 forensic report by accounting firm KPMG, seen by Eyewitness News, detailed several student admission anomalies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s medical school.

These include the denial of space for deserving students after the use of an incorrect quintile ranking system in 2014 and racial criteria that did not form part of official policy between 2014 and 2015.

The report further highlighted that it was possible that undeserving students were admitted to the institution during this period.

Most students who were part of the first-year class of 2014 and 2015 are now practicing as medical officers.

The university said that it had conducted an investigation which had so far cost over R73.5 million and had enhanced its information technology system.

University spokesperson Normah Zondo said that several staff members had been placed on suspension, including Suvannie Chetty, a principal administration officer at the medical school.

INCORRECT INFORMATION

UKZN said that incorrect information given to it in 2014 by the Basic Education Department led to the irregular admission of medical students, many of whom practiced as medical officers today.

Zondo said that they were not responsible for irregular student admissions at the institution in 2014 because they were given wrong school quintile rankings by the department.

"In 2014, the information provided was incorrect. The university reported this to the Department of Basic Education."

The leaked report, however, showed other anomalies.

The report details that a student successfully applied for the 2016 academic year in 2015 after incorrect racial criteria was used in terms of policy.

It’s alleged that a student whose grandmother was previously employed by the institution gained entry while at least 18 students with higher marks were not admitted.

The report found that the 18 students were denied entry simply because they did not submit a verification of application form in time, even though this was not an official policy requirement.

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