By Dara Bradley

The first ever external investigation at Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) into a serious incident of cheating at the college was raised in Dáil Éireann this week.

Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, in response to a Parliamentary Question, appeared to ‘wash his hands’ of the probe and said the investigation into allegations of cheating “is a matter for the Institute’s management authorities and its academic council”.

However, the Galway City Tribune understands that GMIT’s academic council has not discussed the external investigation, launched earlier this year following a series of revelations in this newspaper.

The incident of cheating in early 2010 involved a final year student who obtained an instructor’s manual, which contained model answers to assessment questions. The student is alleged to have used the material to cheat.

The instructor’s manual is legitimately accessible by academic staff online only and is protected by a password. It is alleged the password was passed by the lecturer to the student.

In April of this year GMIT announced an external probe into the incident and whether or not there was an internal cover up of the cheating.

External investigators Professor Bairbre Redmond, deputy registrar for teaching and learning at University College Dublin, and Ed Madden formerly of NUI Maynooth, were engaged to conduct the inquiry.

The investigation has not yet concluded, seven months on.

Minister Quinn said institutions of technology are autonomous statutory bodies. “An institute’s academic council has statutory responsibility to protect, maintain and develop the academic standards of the institute and, subject to the approval of the Governing Body, for the making of academic regulations of the institute including those governing the conduct of investigations,” the Minister said.

He said the external investigation was a matter for the management authorities of GMIT and for its academic council. His response has surprised some members of the academic council who say it has never been discussed at an academic council meeting.

Minister Quinn was responding to a question from Galway West Deputy Brian Walsh, a former member of GMIT’s Governing Body.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.