North West University student undeterred, plans to fight for her Masters after her “pass” was turned into a fail

A North West University (NWU) Masters student, Dibona Peggy Matladi said she won't reregister her dissertation because she believes she has passed and wants the university to do the right thing.

Matladi, a junior lecturer at the University of Limpopo (UL), registered for her Masters Degree in Mathematics with NWU in 2021.

In November, IOL told how Matladi's good news were turned into sorrow when her ''pass'' was turned into a fail.

Since her story was revealed, she said she hasn't heard anything from the university, but how she remained undeterred and has vowed to fight for what she believes is fair.

"The last time I had a personal contact with the University was on July 10, 2024, when I was invited by Prof Kubayi and his team, who presented the sad news to me that I have failed my dissertation," she said.

"All I need from the university is for them to offer my Masters Degree in Mathematics. I will still pursue the matter further to the highest level of the country. I also want to assist other students who might have a similar experience at the university, but more than anything, I need what is due to me." 

Explaining her situation at the time, Matladi said after completing her course work, she opted to major in Topology and the title of her dissertation was: ‘On expansive homeomorphism of uniform spaces’.

She said the university assigned Professor Olivier Olela-Otafudu to be her supervisor and she completed her dissertation in 2023, and it was examined the same year.

“Prof Olela-Otafudu allocated two external examiners to evaluate my work. One was from The University of Almeria in Spain and the other one was from the University of Nis in Serbia,” she said.

“One of the examiners was satisfied with the quality of the dissertation while the other requested that their comments be addressed before giving their verdict. I addressed the comments and then submitted the revised dissertation in January 2024,” she explained.

Matladi said she was informed that the two examiners had allocated 80% and 60% for her work according to her supervisor.

“Prof Olela-Otafudu congratulated me on his WhatsApp status for successfully completing my studies after the release of the second examiner’s verdict in January 2024. His status further indicated that external examiners allocated pass marks of 80% and 60% respectively,” she said.

She said Professor Olela-Otafudu told her that usually in such cases, the department will combine the marks and get an average which would be 70% in this case.

Matladi said she was happy with her results, but her happiness suddenly turned into pain when the university told her that she failed.

“They told me that there was a huge difference between the 80% and the 60% and because of that, they decided to take the matter to an arbiter who then suggested that a third examiner must be roped in. I was told that the third examiner gave me below 50% and that’s the final mark that they will go with.”

Matladi said she rejected the offer and asked the matter to be reviewed.

“Why did they appoint Prof Olela-Otafudu to supervise me if they doubted his credibility, again, why go with a low mark when two independent examiners have already deemed my work competent?’’

“Okay, if they wanted input from their preferred examiner, why didn’t they take the three marks and get an average, why ignore the pass and go with the fail from one person?’’ she asked at the time.

Meanwhile, communications director of Save South Africa Civic Movement, Tebogo Mashilompane said they decided to intervene in Matladi's issue and will be approaching the university in January.

"We will be meeting the university in January and there is a series of events planned in addition to speaking out against racism at the university," he said.

Responding to Matladi’s issue at the time, NWU’s spokesperson, Louis Jacobs explained to IOL that the matter was handled in terms of the university’s academic rules.

According to Jacobs, Matladi was scored 98% by one examiner, and no mark was provided by the second examiner, who subsequently requested a major revision of the entire dissertation.

“This then necessitated a process of revision by the student. Once the revised copy was received, it was sent back to the second examiner who then scored her a mark of 60%.”

Jacobs mentioned that according to academic rules, marks scored by examiners should not differ by more than 15% and in this instance, the difference was 38%.

He said the faculty then appointed an arbiter to assess the research and make a recommendation on the research result.

“A conclusion was made that the mark scored by the first examiner was highly unrealistic and possibly indicates a superficial reading of the dissertation. [On the second examiner], the arbiter remarked that the student only made obvious corrections and no deeper revision as was requested.

“To be fair to the student, a third examiner was appointed, who then failed the student due to various shortcomings in the dissertation. This examiner pointed out that there were indications of possible text lifting pointing to self-plagiarism.

“After consultation with the advisor on academic integrity matters, it was concluded that the examination piece would need to be revised and rewritten.

“In terms of the academic rules, a third examination opportunity is not possible, and the only option was to give the student the opportunity to continue but only when the topic of the mini dissertation was changed. She was also provided with a new study leader,” explained Jacobs.

Jacobs added that everything was explained to Matladi and she was also given an opportunity to declare a dispute with the university, but she has not yet done so.

sinenhlanhla.masilela@iol.co.za

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