UZ Rocked By Alarming Academic Scandal As Standards Plummet

The University of Zimbabwe (UZ), once regarded as the country’s premier institution of higher learning, is now facing a serious academic scandal that has sparked outrage from within the academic community.

The Association of University Teachers (AUT) at UZ has sounded the alarm over what it describes as the complete breakdown of academic integrity and oversight in the evaluation of student dissertations and projects.

According to the AUT, students are now allowed to submit any material as dissertations or final-year projects without undergoing the rigorous academic processes traditionally required.

In a major departure from established norms, these submissions are no longer supervised properly, nor are they subjected to formal defence sessions before academic boards.

Instead, projects are handed in without scrutiny, and marks are arbitrarily awarded by department chairpersons.

The AUT warns that this lowering of standards is having far-reaching consequences.

The degradation of academic rigour not only affects the quality of graduates but also tarnishes the credibility of the university’s qualifications, both locally and internationally.

The situation has raised alarm over what the AUT describes as UZ’s transformation into a “banana university”.

The AUT also placed the blame squarely on the shoulders of key institutional leaders. Vice Chancellor Paul Mapfumo is under scrutiny for allegedly allowing these academic malpractices to flourish under his watch.

Furthermore, the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education (ZIMCHE), the body tasked with overseeing university standards, has been criticised for its failure to act decisively.

The association also pointed to the apparent silence of Higher Education Minister Frederick Shava, whose inaction, they claim, has only deepened the crisis.

The association has urged members of the academic community, regulatory authorities, and government stakeholders to demand immediate accountability.

Restoring rigorous academic processes, particularly proper supervision and mandatory defences of final-year work, is critical, they argued, to preserving the future of the university and safeguarding the integrity of Zimbabwe’s higher education sector.