Madar (Nouakchott) - The National Union of Mauritanian Students (UNEM) has accused the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of breaching merit and transparency criteria in allocating international cooperation places and university orientation, following a new list of beneficiaries of scholarships to Morocco published by the ministry on Wednesday.
In a statement, the union said it had found several irregularities in the list, including the admission to master's programmes of students with low grades while others with higher grades were excluded through the ministry's orientation platform, as well as the inclusion of baccalaureate holders from earlier sessions and from this year's supplementary session, which it said contravened the announced criteria.
According to the union, the list also includes changes to the classification of study tracks to make students' assigned subjects appear consistent with their original tracks, and two doctoral places awarded without prior announcement, which it said raised suspicions of favouritism. It also denounced irregularities in orientation at the National Higher School of Health Sciences.
UNEM called on the authorities to correct the irregularities, guarantee equal opportunities for students and intervene urgently to end what it described as improvised decisions.
