CUHK student faces suspension for forging sick and death certificates: sources

A notice from the Chinese University of Hong Kong's (CUHK) Senate Committee on Student Discipline has been circulating on social media lately, revealing an undergraduate student was punished and suspended for fabricating sick and death certificates.

The notice was issued by the Committee on September 13 last year, stating an undergraduate student received five demerits for forging sick leave certificates to apply for absence from an exam, as well as death records and a copy of a death entry to request an exemption from the scholarship renewal criteria. 

Following a detailed review by the Panel of Judges, the student was temporarily suspended for the first and second semesters of the 2024–2025 academic year due to the seriousness of the infraction, adding that the student was required to submit a reflection letter to the dean of the student college.

The notice also indicated that if the students have met all graduation requirements, there will be no graduation assessment until the second semester of the 2024-25 academic year, noting that the incident will be announced anonymously to serve as a warning to others.

In a response to an inquiry from Sing Tao Daily -- a sister publication of The Standard -- CUHK stressed that disciplinary actions, including termination of studies, will be taken if it is proven that the student is falsifying or altering documents or records. 

However, the school will not comment or provide additional information about the incidents in order to protect the privacy of the parties involved.

Wong Kam-fai, a professor at CUHK and a lawmaker, expressed shock at the fabricated death certificate but considered it an isolated incident and did not believe it would cause further fraud or harm the school's reputation.

Wong also addressed the issue of students faking their address in order to obtain school accommodations, assuring that the university has policies in place to deal with such situations. 

According to last year's documents from the committee, there were 31 disciplinary violations from the students during the school year 2023-2024, including 16 cases of plagiarism and 6 of document forgery.