Can a Mining Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Open-Pit Mine Slope Stability Factor of Safety Calculations?

A university will summarily expel a mining or geotechnical engineering undergraduate, award a failing grade (grade F) with a permanent disciplinary notation, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating open-pit mine slope stability factor of safety (FoS) calculations, forging geotechnical borehole rock mass rating (RMR) data, or falsifying geotechnical numerical modeling software (such as Slide2 or FLAC) analysis outputs without conducting empirical laboratory rock mechanics testing. In mining engineering curricula accredited by COREN, geotechnical slope engineering—including measuring rock shear strength parameters, cohesion, and friction angles, determining groundwater pore pressure ratios, and performing limit equilibrium stability analyses—represents a life-critical technical competency; fabricating slope stability calculations subverts mine safety standards, risks catastrophic slope failures in operating quarries and open-pit mines, and violates fundamental engineering ethics.

Mining engineering departments and rock mechanics laboratory coordinators enforce rigorous data verification procedures to identify fabricated geotechnical calculations.

1. The rock mechanics course lecturer audits submitted mine design portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized factor of safety values that disregard structural discontinuity orientations and joint sets.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the rock mechanics testing bay logbook and establishes that the student never signed out direct shear testing apparatus or point load index equipment.
3. The technologist checks rock sample inventory records and confirms that no rock core specimens were requisitioned or tested under the student’s assigned project codes.
4. The student is formally summoned before the Departmental Laboratory Ethics Committee to produce their raw testing logbook and demonstrate slope stability software modeling workflows.
5. Inability to explain boundary condition parameters or replicate factor of safety derivations 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 geotechnical slope design is essential for mining engineers who will oversee rock excavations, waste rock dumps, and open-pit mining operations.

• Standardized rock mechanics laboratory manual with approved slope stability testing protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording direct shear test normal stresses, shear stresses, and rock core RQD measurements.
• Geotechnical modeling software project input files (.slz, .flac) and convergence iteration history.
• Plotted geological stereonet projections showing discontinuity planes, dip directions, and potential failure modes (planar, wedge, or toppling).

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for natural geological variances and structural weaknesses, rather than manufacturing idealized stability figures.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating geotechnical safety calculations is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory rustication and permanent loss of practical laboratory credits.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that mining engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to design safe, stable, and sustainable mineral excavation projects.