JEDDAH: A Saudi female student has been expelled by a US university and prevented from obtaining her degree after she was caught cheating, according to a website.
The site, Saudis in the USA, claimed the Masters student, who had been studying public administration, had plagiarized an entire page from a textbook.
It also revealed she had been sent to the country on a scholarship by the Saudi Higher Education Ministry.
“This is a crime under American law but the university reduced the punishment by only expelling her from the university and preventing her from completing her Masters degree,” the site said. The website, which is run by Saudi students in the US and is funded by the Kingdom, has not named the student or university. The ministry has refused to confirm or deny the website’s claims despite several attempts to contact them by phone and e-mail.
Over the past two weeks, Arab News tried to obtain comments from the Undersecretary of the Ministry for Scholarship Affairs Dr. Abdullah Al-Mousa or any other senior official on the issue but did not get a response.
The ministry has warned all Saudi students sent abroad on government scholarships to abide by the laws and regulations of their respective countries to avoid embarrassing Saudi cultural attaches. It also warned that any violations might lead to their scholarship being terminated.
