Higher Education Bubble Dark Side?

On the heels of Obama’s visit to UNC Chapel Hill, campaigning on Student Loan woes, there’s trouble in the Afro-American studies department at UNC Chapel Hill. An internal investigation prompted by a plagiarism case in 2011, has uncovered grade tampering and ‘temporary grade assignments’, falsified signatures and plagiarism going as far back at 2007.

Two staff have been named in the report:  Professor Julius Nyang’oro – retiring this Summer 2012 and Department Administrator, Deborah Crowder, who retired in September 2009.

All those loans and debt accumulated and the grades that apparently weren’t earned – devaluing diplomas at Chapel Hill and everywhere else. There’s an education bubble alright, and it’s just not about the money but the integrity of the education people are getting – or, rather, not getting in this case.

WRAL reports:

A nine-month internal investigation into the Department of African and Afro-American Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill revealed unauthorized grades, forged signatures and other irregularities according to a 10-page report released Friday.

Also:

Between 2007 and 2009, grades for 59 students in nine courses were submitted to the registrar with forged signatures of professors who said they never taught the course. During that same span, “several faculty members” stated that there were unauthorized grade changes and they were not aware of who authorized the adjustments.

Read the Full Report – especially the conclusion at the end.