CUHK suspends student in Hong Kong over forged sick note, death certificate

An undergraduate at the Chinese University of Hong Kong has been suspended for forging sick notes to apply for an absence from an exam and a death certificate to secure an exemption from scholarship renewal requirements.

The university on Sunday cited privacy concerns in declining to provide further details on the case, which came to light on social media recently in posts showing a notice issued in September last year by its student discipline committee.

Without naming the offender, the committee said the student had received five demerit points altogether for falsifying medical certificates to apply for an absence from examination. The student also falsified a death certificate and the result of a death search to apply for a waiver of renewal criteria of a scholarship.

A panel of judges found the behaviour constituted “very serious misconduct” after a detailed examination and suspended the student for the first and second semesters of the 2024-25 academic year, with the offender also required to submit a letter of reflection.

In handing down its punishment, the committee said graduation assessment would be withheld until the second semester of the academic year if the student had already met all graduation requirements.

Students are often required to achieve satisfactory academic performance by meeting a minimum grade point average level to renew a scholarship.

Some scholarships also require awardees to perform community service.