Vice Chancellor for the
University of Development Studies Professor Gabriel Ayum Teye has urged
students of the University to avoid patronising services of thesis contractors
in fulfilment of their academic work requirement.
“Some students contract professional
thesis writers for a fee and present such works as their products” he
said. “As you may have realised, these practices reflect in performances
on the job after graduation”.
He added:
“This explains why employers in industry are now complaining about
the quality of products from the universities and other training
institutions”.
The Vice Chancellor made this call during a
matriculation ceremony at Wa Campus for fresh students admitted into the
University to pursue sandwich programmes leading to the award of various
degrees.
He said the Graduate Board was tackling the
issue of plagiarism head-on, hence, no Term Paper,
Dissertation or Thesis would be accepted for
assessment without plagiarised reports attached from the University library.
“I therefore urge you to subject your
documents at various stages to the plagiarism test and not simply download
material from the internet and change names to reflect the location of your
research”.
“This is academic thievery and
dishonesty must be condemned in the strongest words possible,” he added.
Professor Teye observed that students viewed
pursuing sandwich programmes as an easier path to obtaining higher degrees and
as such hardly visited library facilities nor made use of the E – resources at
their disposal.
According to him, students therefore left
the academic institution largely ignorant and without developing their critical
and analytical skills.
The fresh students were advised to act as
role models, respect the university’s rules and regulations as they moved on
with their studies diligently.
The VC called on government to beef up
security around the campuses and more especially the Wa Campus, where there
were multiple reports of attacks on both lectures and students losing
motorbikes and mobile phones.
A total of 220 students were admitted for
the 2019/ 2020 academic year sandwich programme.
GNA