THE allegations of a former tutor at UC that two overseas students had received favourable academic treatment has been rejected by an independent inquiry.

It was reported in April that in 2010 journalism tutor Lynne Minion failed two overseas students in their Bachelor of Sports Media assignments. Course convenor Crispin Hull, a former editor of “The Canberra Times”, reassessed the students’ performance and gave them both a pass.

Minion had told the media in April that “the two students’ English comprehension was so poor that she had to rely on a third Chinese student to act as a translator”.

According to UC, the university had only became aware of the former tutor’s claims when they were raised by her in the media.

In response, the university commissioned Prof Graham Webb to undertake an independent inquiry and committed itself to publishing the full report whatever its findings.

His inquiry found no evidence of institutional pressure to reduce standards and the two students in question had been validly admitted to the university based on their academic performance.

It also found that their English language capability met the University’s Admissions Policy, and was in line with practice across the university sector and a number of claims by the tutor in relation to the marking incident were either incorrect or denied by other university staff members.

UC’s Assessment Policy requires that all assignments receiving a fail grade be marked again by the unit convenor to ensure that standards have been consistently applied across the student cohort.

Prof Webb said Hull found that “the assignments were intelligible so that when marking on the full range of criteria was undertaken and the criteria were fairly applied, the students passed the assignment”.

The inquiry also discovered a number of students, including the two at the centre of these allegations, had complained to faculty management about the tutor and were subsequently moved to Hull’s tutorial group.

The report also considered an email exchange between the unit convenor and the tutor at the time of the assessment in 2010 which made reference to the fact that the students may not seek to practice journalism in Australia.

Prof Webb said Hull had explained his objective was to “ensure that the students received a fair grade and at the same time the new tutor did not feel devalued or humiliated by the change of grade”.

Professor Webb was critical of the views expressed by Hull in the email, but he accepted that they had no bearing on the outcome of the assessment.

A number of recommendations were made including an improvement to the induction of students, a review of its policy for mandating the use of staff email accounts to conduct university business and its policy to retain student assignments.

Prof Webb has chaired numerous audits for Quality Agencies and is a consultant, trainer and auditor for national accreditation and audit agencies in six countries. In 2008, he received the Australian Higher Education Quality Award.

A full copy of the report can be found at: http://bit.ly/MFYjB3