Many students would be distraught to get an exam score of 41%, but a budding engineer at the University of the Witwatersrand went to court instead.
Vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib had his hands full this week trying to avert a public relations nightmare sparked by student Joshua van der Meer's litigation. But more litigation could be on the cards.
The dispute has exposed the university's failure to have examinations externally moderated, which calls into question its world-class standing.It has also unleashed claims of racism and sexism by a lecturer, as well as accusations that Wits has bent over backwards for one "rich student".
In a letter to students in the school of civil and environmental engineering, lecturer Precious Biyela slates university management for scheduling a special examination for "one student". She refers to him as "Student X" but 27-year-old Van der Meer's name is on court papers, which are a public record.
Biyela accuses the student of lying about her by telling senior academics she did not teach his class reaction kinetics and chlorine disinfection.
Biyela also revealed that no supplementary examinations in the school were externally assessed in 2016-2017.
Van der Meer has sued Wits twice. In his first lawsuit, last year, he compelled the university to allow him to sit his third-year structural engineering semester test in August.
It had been reluctant to do so because of a row over his dual enrolment for environmental engineering. He went on to score 79%.
His second application, last month, in the High Court in Johannesburg, was for a review of his supplementary examination in the introduction to environmental engineering course, in which he scored 41%. The case was settled with an agreement that Van der Meer and 18 other students who failed would write a "special supplementary examination", which is yet to take place.
In her letter, Biyela said it was untrue that she had omitted to cover the syllabus.
"It is one thing for Student X to lie in order to curry favour with the Dean. What I find eternally troubling is the fact that the Dean and legal office indulged Student X and his legal team to the point of considering 'redistributing' the marks for the supplementary examination without affording me the opportunity to answer to the accusations made by Student X," she said.She accused "Student X" of failing to attend lectures last year, and said his lawyers, the dean and the legal office were all aware of his non-attendance.
Biyela said the decision to make all 19 students write a special examination had "incited hatred and contempt" towards her, and she had had to lock herself in her office. She had been accused of being incompetent and "downright cruel".
It's about racism
"The defamation engineered by Student X is just one example of the contempt and hatred I am often subjected to in my own department. I know without doubt that this vitriol is driven by a combination of racism and sexism."
Van der Meer's father, lawyer Peter van der Meer, came out guns blazing this week. He said his son took the "ruinously expensive" legal route after a succession of "rebuffs" from the university. He added that Joshua, who already has an honours degree in science from Stellenbosch University, had passed all his subjects except the one taught by Biyela.
"Joshua rejects the unfounded racism and sexism allegations made by Dr Biyela," he said. "His complaint is strictly concerned with manifestly unfair examination questions. Joshua has reserved his right to take legal action against Dr Biyela (and in fact her employer)."
Habib said the dean of the faculty of engineering and the built environment, Professor Ian Jandrell, and deputy vice-chancellor Professor Andrew Crouch, investigated Joshua's complaint. With the support of a recommendation from an external examiner, they upheld his mark, prompting the court action...