The University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA) has uncovered a major results manipulation scheme involving 178 students, with more than 500 academic results altered in the university’s system.

The Vice Chancellor, Prof Kwaku Mensah Mawutor, disclosed this during the university’s 18th Congregation, describing it as a serious and unfortunate incident.

According to him, some students and other individuals breached the university’s system and manipulated students’ academic results.

“Some unscrupulous students and some unscrupulous individuals breached our system by hijacking our system and changing results in our system,” Prof Mawutor said.

He said investigations had identified the culprits and established that “over 500 results were changed by 178 students.”

Prof Mawutor said some of the students subsequently admitted to paying individuals to alter their results, while others confessed to collecting money from colleagues to facilitate the manipulation.

“After the investigations, a number of them came to confess that indeed, they paid money to some unscrupulous people to change their results. Others also denied, while others confessed that they collected monies from their colleagues,” he said.

He described the development as unacceptable, particularly for an institution such as UPSA.

“This is highly unacceptable, especially at UPSA,” Prof Mawutor stressed.

The Vice Chancellor further disclosed that some of the students implicated in the results manipulation were scheduled to graduate at the university’s 18th Congregation.

However, their graduation has been withheld indefinitely to allow investigations and disciplinary processes to continue.

“Some of these culprits were supposed to graduate, but due to the hard work of our ISTD team and the investigative committee, we have withheld their graduation until further notice,” he said.

Prof Mawutor said the incident was not entirely new to the university but noted that the scale of the latest case was significant.

“This is a very, very unfortunate incident, which to me is not the first time, but this time, the magnitude is very, very significant,” he said.

He commended the university’s Information Systems and Technology Directorate (ISTD) team and the investigative committee for uncovering the manipulation and helping identify those involved.