By 3 News online staff
The University of Auckland is investigating how a fake medical student managed to avoid detection since last year and took part in the dissection of bodies donated for medical research purposes.
The university issued a statement following inquiries by 3 News this afternoon.
“We are extremely concerned to discover that a person who applied for entry into the medical programme in 2010 and was unsuccessful has since been attending classes.
"Because of the size of the medical class, and by not submitting assessments or sitting tests, the individual was able to deceive classmates and teachers. Ultimately the presence of this person was detected when an assignment was submitted that did not match any name on the class list.”
Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences Dean, Professor John Fraser, says the university is taking the incident “very seriously”.
“This type of behaviour is extremely unusual and this is the first such instance in the 43-year history of the medical school,” he said.
An anonymous emailer claimed the student was taking part in a third-year hospital placement, which allowed him to have direct contact with patients, and take part in cadaver dissection labs.
The emailer claimed the student was also able to access confidential patient information, however Prof Fraser said the student has not been given any confidential or restricted training material and “has not, to our knowledge, ever been able to examine any patients or received confidential patient information”.
The university is believed to have issued a trespass notice against the fake student and is investigating how the student went undetected for so long.
3 News