Wits University has rubbished claims that it gave a white student special treatment after claims emerged that she was given a pass despite failing a primary care course.
Some 27 black students this week claimed that the white female failed the six-week course and that black students were not afforded the same opportunity.
Why r Whites students who have failed at the Wits Medical school being allowed to graduate & Blacks not?
— Romeo Mo Blaq™ (@PluckyNemes) November 28, 2017
The university's senior management said it was committed to "transformation and reforming institutional culture".
"Despite these institutionalised efforts, there are often public remarks about our failures to engage in transformation by stakeholders who do not engage on the basis of the facts," the institution said.
Wits vice-chancellor professor Adam Habib has denied the claims, Timeslive reported.
He said the student had achieved the second-highest mark, but that an "administrative error" meant her mark had been incorrectly transcribed.
"She was not given a privilege. She passed; they [the others] failed," Habib said.
The institution could not confirm claims made by final-year student, Mtwakazi Bula, that 90 out of the 95 final-year medical students at the university who failed one or more of their seven compulsory modules this year were black African.
This is not the first time the university has been accused of altering marks to accommodate some students.
In July, Wits Civil Engineering Lecturer Dr Precious Biyela suggested exam irregularities at the university. Biyela said 19 second year civil engineering students had been allowed to write a special examination regardless of having failed a supplementary exam earlier in the year.
She has accused the university of granting this special exam because of a particular student who was believed to have been afforded many privileges that go against university policies. One being, the opportunity to do two courses in the same diagonal, when most students have to opt to do one course on a full- time basis and another part-time.