Can a Civil Engineering Student Be Expelled for Faking Highway Bituminous Core Marshall Stability Logs?

A university will summarily expel a civil or transportation engineering undergraduate, cancel all highway engineering and materials laboratory credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating asphalt concrete Marshall stability test logs, faking flow meter deformation values, or forging highway engineering laboratory technologist verification signatures without conducting physical bituminous core crushing experiments. In civil engineering curricula accredited by COREN, transportation materials testing—such as preparing asphalt concrete specimens using standard Marshall compaction hammers, immersing in water baths at 60 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes, and measuring peak failure load (stability in kilonewtons) and plastic deformation (flow in millimeters)—represents a life-critical technical competency; fabricating asphalt stability data subverts highway pavement design calculations, risks premature pavement rutting and catastrophic highway failure, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Departmental laboratory coordinators and highway materials examiners utilize calibrated testing equipment logs to detect fabricated experimental submissions.

1. The highway engineering course lecturer audits submitted asphalt testing portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized stability-flow curves that ignore aggregate gradation variances and void ratio variations.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the highway engineering materials laboratory sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out asphalt compaction moulds, bitumen penetrometers, or Marshall stability compression machines.
3. The technologist checks the bitumen dispensary register and confirms that no standard 60/70 penetration grade bitumen or crushed granite aggregates were requisitioned under the student’s assigned project codes.
4. The student is formally summoned before the Departmental Laboratory Ethics Committee to produce their raw bench workbook and demonstrate asphalt specimen compaction and stability testing.
5. Inability to explain air void calculations or replicate stability-flow measurements leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and academic fraud.
6. The Head of Department transmits an investigative dossier to the Faculty of Engineering Board and the University Central Student Disciplinary Committee (SDC).
7. The student appears before the disciplinary committee to defend their submissions under constitutional principles of fair hearing.
8. The University Senate considers the committee’s findings and ratifies an order of rustication or summary expulsion, notifying COREN to bar future professional licensure.

Acquiring hands-on competency in bituminous materials evaluation is essential for civil engineers who will design, construct, and inspect national highway networks, airport runways, and heavy-duty industrial pavements.

• Standardized highway engineering laboratory manual with approved Marshall stability testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording bitumen content percentages, specimen bulk specific gravities, stability failure loads, and flow values.
• Highway materials testing bay sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and test rig usage.
• Plotted Marshall design curves showing stability, flow, unit weight, air voids, and voids in mineral aggregate (VMA) versus asphalt content.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for aggregate packing variations and temperature fluctuations, rather than manufacturing idealized asphalt design data.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating highway pavement testing data is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory rustication and permanent loss of practical laboratory credits.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that civil engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to construct safe, durable, and resilient transportation infrastructure.