A decision to fail more than 250 first-year commerce students at the University of Malta because of cheating has been revised by a new disciplinary board.
Students found to be directly involved in the suspected cheating have been reprimanded and had marks from the affected test "deducted according to the degree of severity of their collusion".
All other students have been given the original mark they obtained in the test.
Earlier this month, the Faculty of Economics informed students that they would receive no marks for Progress Test 1 after it transpired that some of them cheated their way through two tests that formed part of one study unit.
In an email sent to all first-year students, the faculty said it had more than 43 screenshots from a Facebook Messenger chat to prove “the collusion".
The email stated that students would be able to resit the test, but would only be granted a pass mark at best.
On Monday, the faculty said that a new disciplinary board, chaired by the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy, Prof. Frank Bezzina, had reviewed the decision to fail the first-year students.
It said the faculty came into possession of screenshots from a Facebook Messenger chat alleging collusion between a number of students during an exam, EMA1008: Quantitative Analysis for Business 1.
"Those students involved in the chat were granted a fair hearing by being individually allowed to explain their participation in the chat. This also allowed the Board to determine the extent of their involvement in the matter. In those cases where it transpired that students indeed colluded with others, the Board reprimanded them for their unacceptable behaviour.
These students were further penalised by having their original marks deducted according to the degree of severity of their collusion," the university said.
It did not specify how many students had their marks deducted.
The University's student council, KSU, had criticised the faculty's decision to fail all students as "unjust".
"While we strongly condemn cheating in any form and believe that collusion should be addressed by the university, it is unreasonable that students are penalised en masse without a fair hearing before the faculty’s disciplinary board as part of a comprehensive investigation in line with the university's assessment regulations," it said.
"It is unjust that students who worked hard and sat for their exam independently of their peers while following all regulations receive a failing mark due to the actions of other students," KSU had said, calling on the faculty to reconsider its decision.