THE STATE-RUN University of Liberia (UL) has sharply discredited as ‘fake news’ reports that went viral on social media that the UL plans to drop 8,000 students for alleged fraudulent admission into the tertiary institution.
SOCIAL MEDIA, ESPECIALLY Facebook got flooded over the weekend with reports of UL’s decision to remove about 8,000 students from its enrollment database, thus sparking panic among students and the public.
IT COMES WHEN students of the University are already in high spirit for their final exams for the first semester of academic year 2024/25.
HOWEVER, IN A mobile phone conversation with Lux Radio Monday, May 19, 2025, Vice President for University Relations, Norris Tweah refuted the report, stating that the school has made no such decision lately.
“WELL, THE NEWS on social media that the UL Administration intends to drop 8000 Students is not accurate, it’s not a fact, it’s not reality,” VP Tweah stated. “We have no intention. If we do, we have our official platforms to do so”.
VP TWEAH THEN encouraged Students of the University to remain focused on their exams and not be distracted by any unverified information regarding the University. He continued that authentic news about the entity is always published on its official website and other platforms.
THE UL OFFICIAL Spokesman further explained that at no time has conversation of such nature been held at the management level of the Institution.
TWEAH AVERRED THAT the UL will not hesitate to take action against anyone involved in violation of the Institution’s enrollment policies.
WHILE WE ACKNOWLEDGE the swift response of the UL to disabuse the minds of the public that it has no plans to drop 8,000 students for alleged fraudulent admission to the tertiary institution, one will wonder what gave rise to such a report in the first place on the social media? Has there been any undiscovered sinister activities that may have taken place in regards to students’ administration to the UL in recent times? Or, is someone just bent on tarnishing the image of the UL?
THE ADAGE THAT “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” should claim the attention of the UL authorities, especially when during past years unconfirmed reports filtered that some staff members of the UL administration office as well as other professors and teachers were accused that they surreptitiously solicited funds from students who took the UL entrance with the objective to help them get enrolment.
WE CALL ON the UL administration to thoroughly investigate the social report about plans to drop 8,000 students for alleged fraudulent admission. The UL must find the source of the rumors and deal with it sufficiently when anybody is caught to be the source of such rumors. Also, report of such nature may be exposing undisclosed sinister action by people in authority at the UL admission office. The UL must dig deeper.
THE UL MUST speed up the investigation and not just issue a statement of denying the rumors but must go beyond and get to the bottom because the reports spread on social media with such pace as though it was authenticated and accurate. We plead with the UL to institute its investigation with urgency.
IT CAN BE recalled in 1994 the late UL President, Dr. Patrick Sayon’s administration expelled students who had entered the school through fraudulent means. The UL at the time did not spare anyone who was caught in the malpractice, including graduating seniors. Dr. Sayon’s action became dissuasion for would-be fraudsters who wanted to enter the UL fraudulently.
WE CALL ON the UL administration not to hesitate to take any stringent action against anybody found to have facilitated fraudulent admission, just as it did recently when eight employees of the University of Liberia were terminated and suspended from their jobs – one employee was suspended until the end of 2025; and two employees will return to work because no conclusive evidence of their involvement was uncovered.
THESE EMPLOYEES’ TERMINATION and suspension came as a result of a report from the Special Committee to Investigate Academic Fraud at the University of Liberia. The report was based on a four-month investigation of facts related to several instances of alleged academic fraud and misconduct at the University of Liberia.
UL PRESIDENT DR. Lily Maparyan said the report includes the case that has been referred to as the ‘Dorr Cooper Incident’ as well as other cases. “The report concludes definitively that coordinated acts of academic fraud did occur.”
ACCORDING TO THE UL President’s statement, these diabolical acts involved several UL employees from multiple units of the University, including the Depart of Public Administration (PADM), the Office of Enrollment Services (OES), and the Office of Information Technology (OIT).
DR. MAPARYAN STRESSED that by addressing academic fraud and misconduct head-on and unflinchingly, the UL administration would be in a position to elevate the university’s academic standards and reputation and create the excellent, effective, and ethical educational institution that Liberia’s students, faculty, and staff deserve.
HONESTY MUST BE a cardinal attribute for students who enter universities to learn and prepare themselves for the future. If a student in the first place can harbor the notion of entering a university through fraudulent means, what is the guarantee that student will want to learn properly when he/she knows that bribery is way to achieve academically, a very notion that is bad for the educational system of any country. Let the right thing be done always at our tertiary institutions.
