DUBAI // Two administrators who accepted bribes to change students’ exam results from fail to pass in university records have been sentenced to three years in jail.
Russian M N, 32, and Lebanese M A, 33, were convicted by Dubai Criminal Court of accepting bribes totalling Dh300,000 from 20 students working towards English language majors at the American University in Dubai.
The two were employed to receive and process Test of English as a Foreign Language and International English Language Testing System papers from students and put them into electronic records. They were also convicted of forging 20 documents and using them.
The head of the university’s admissions section, T K, 37, also from Lebanon, said M A was sacked in October 2012 because of his poor performance.
“On January 19 last year, I noticed that Toefl documents for five students were not in the system, but the students were accepted to the university,” she said. “They cannot be admitted unless these documents with pass results are in the system.”
The admissions chief said M N was responsible for saving the documents. “He showed me copies of the documents, so I told him we don’t take copies, we only take originals,” she said. “Then, someone I don’t know called me and said they were forged and that M N was aware of the forgery.”
She spoke to one of the students with the fake papers and he told her that another student had given him M A’s mobile number and said he would change his results for Dh20,000.
A check was carried out on other results and more forged documents were found.
“Some of the students involved were expelled from the university, while some were downgraded,” the admissions chief said.
M A was arrested on February 5 last year. “He denied his involvement, but investigations revealed that he showed sudden signs of wealth, as he bought a luxury car and was about to open a company,” said police captain W A, 33.
On February 13, M N was arrested at his home. Prosecutors said he confessed to splitting the money with M A.
The pair were fined Dh211,200 between them and they will be deported after serving their jail terms.
salamir@thenational.ae