General: Did disgraced academic profit from fake degree?

Disgraced Professor Edwin Ijeoma, the former academic who resigned after being accused of admitting unqualified civil servants for post-graduate degrees at the University of Fort Hare, may have himself used a fake master’s degree, reports News24. He allegedly used the fake degree from a bogus US university to get accepted at the University of Pretoria for a PhD program. The historic Eastern Cape university placed Ijeoma on precautionary suspension in October 2020 over allegations that he irregularly registered axed Eastern Cape MEC Sindiswa Gomba for an Honors in Public Administration. In a leaked report compiled by a forensic company hired by Fort Hare to audit Ijeoma’s qualifications, it has been revealed that he may have faked his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Marketing. The report charges that Ijeoma’s MBA, which he claimed he obtained from a now defunct Kensington University in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a sham because it was purportedly granted to him in 1995, a year before the institution was registered. The report said Ijeoma was, likely, accepted to study his PhD at the University of Pretoria using the questionable MBA as the basis for entry into the program. The University of Pretoria could not confirm or deny conferring a PhD on Ijeoma. Spokesperson Primarashni Gower said: ‘In terms of the Protection of Personal Information Act, we are unable to give any response with regards to any potential student.’