The National Defence University (UPNM) has denied any wrongdoing in its handling of an alleged plagiarism case three years ago.

In a statement, UPNM explained that it had thoroughly investigated the allegation and found no reasons not to allow the student in question to graduate in 2015.

“The plagiarism allegation against the UPNM Bachelor of Strategic Studies student had been investigated transparently by UPNM authorities and action was taken based on existing policies and procedures,” said university’s information officer Ahmad Rifad A Rashid.

“Results from the investigation found that the student fulfilled the standards stipulated by the UPNM Senate to graduate. [...] UPNM had conducted a thorough investigation into the matter and acted as fair as possible so that no parties were aggrieved.”

Ahmad Rifad stressed that the university had always operated according to the principles of “good governance” and maintained a high academic standard.

A police report was previously lodged against campus administrators accusing them of “abuse of power” and “fraud” in their handling of the case.

According to the police report, after being caught for plagiarising her final paper, the student had been allowed a two-week grace period to fix her work before re-submitting it to the marking panel.

However, before re-submitting her paper, the campus administration set up a new marking panel and it graded the student an A- for the same paper she had been caught plagiarising.

She eventually graduated with a degree.

The report, which was filed by a lecturer from the original marking panel, had also named UPNM’s former vice-chancellor, Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, as one of the people allegedly responsible.

Zulkifli presently serves as the Armed Forces chief.

Defamation suit dismissed

In its statement, UPNM also referred to an ongoing defamation case that resulted from this plagiarism allegation.

Filed by the same lecturer who lodged the above-mentioned police report, the suit alleged another member of the academic staff had defamed the plaintiff during an argument over how the university administration had handled the plagiarism case.

Court documents obtained from the E-Kehakiman website show that the defamation suit was dismissed by Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court judge Norliza Othman in March this year where the plaintiff was ordered to pay RM10,000 in costs to the defendant.

The suit is presently up for appeal at the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

UPNM, a tertiary educational institution of about 3,000 students where the vice-chancellor is a military officer, is also mired in an alleged cover-up of a sexual harassment case.

The Education Ministry has since set up an ‘Academic Integrity Committee' to probe the sexual harassment case.