Can a Mining Engineering Student Be Expelled for Fabricating Underground Mine Ventilation Airflow Logs?

A university will summarily expel a mining or mineral resources engineering undergraduate, cancel all underground mining and mine ventilation credits, and report the student to the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) for professional debarment for fabricating underground mine airway ventilation airflow velocity measurements, faking rotating vane anemometer traverse logs, or forging mine ventilation laboratory supervisor verification signatures without conducting physical airflow surveys. In mining engineering curricula accredited by COREN, mine ventilation engineering—including performing continuous traverse airflow measurements across underground airway cross-sections, measuring differential barometric pressures, calculating airway Atkinson resistance ($R$) and acoustic shock losses, and evaluating methane and toxic gas dilution requirements—represents a life-critical technical competency; fabricating ventilation data subverts underground mine safety standards, risks catastrophic underground asphyxiation or explosive firedamp methane accumulations, and violates professional engineering ethics.

Mining engineering departments and mine ventilation testing coordinators utilize calibrated anemometer session logs to detect fabricated ventilation submissions.

1. The mine ventilation course lecturer audits submitted practical portfolios and identifies mathematically idealized airflow velocity profiles that ignore boundary-layer wall friction and airway roughness coefficients.
2. The chief laboratory technologist checks the mine ventilation tunnel testing bay sign-in register and confirms that the student never signed out rotating vane anemometers, pitot-static tubes, or smoke tubes.
3. The technologist checks the ventilation test tunnel electrical power logs and confirms that the main centrifugal ventilation fan was not operated during the student’s claimed testing hours.
4. The student is formally issued an academic query requiring them to perform a live anemometer traverse across an active air duct and calculate total volumetric airflow rate ($Q = V imes A$).
5. Inability to demonstrate anemometer continuous traverse techniques leads to a formal charge of scientific fabrication and academic fraud.
6. The Head of Department forwards an investigative report 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.

Acquiring hands-on competency in underground ventilation surveys is essential for mining engineers who will design and manage ventilation networks in deep underground gold, coal, and base-metal mines.

• Standardized mine ventilation laboratory manual with approved anemometer traverse protocols.
• Raw bench workbook recording airway cross-sectional areas, anemometer traverse counts, traverse durations, and air density corrections.
• Mine ventilation tunnel testing bay sign-in register confirming equipment allocation and tunnel usage.
• Plotted mine airway ventilation network diagrams showing air quantity distributions, pressure drops, and regulator valve settings.

Students must record actual experimental measurements honestly, accounting for anemometer correction curves and turbulent eddies, rather than manufacturing idealized airflow data.

Under COREN professional regulations and university examination codes, fabricating life-safety mine ventilation testing data is classified as severe academic fraud, carrying mandatory expulsion and total debarment from the engineering profession nationwide.

Maintaining rigorous laboratory ethics ensures that mining engineering diplomates and graduates develop sound technical judgement required to operate safe, well-ventilated, and compliant underground mineral extraction operations.