as the printed source is available on line by subscription I quote the relevant section Corrupt Conduct  Newcastles woes began in December  when a lecturer awarded a score of zero to  students who were then enrolled in Wiras MBA program The lecturer Ian Firns failed the students after discovering that large amounts of their work on an organizationaleffectiveness examination had been lifted without attribution from the Internet  They have treated us as though we are fools Mr Firns wrote to the university in an email message explaining his decision to flunk the worst group of students I have encountered in any class The lecturer had been personally insulted by the students actions he wrote  Rather than failing the students however the university responded to his discovery by reassigning the disputed papers to another lecturer who passed the students in a number of cases with some of the highest grades in the class All of the students went on to receive degrees Whats more it was later revealed that some of Mr Firnss earlier critical markings on the papers had been whited out prompting a public spat between Newcastle officials and the lecturer an educational consultant  Describing Mr Firnss response as a gross overreaction the university later fired him  In June  Mr Firns took the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption an official body in the state of New South Wales which has since issued a report that vindicated him and severely criticized the universitys role in covering up the students misconduct  The inquiry found that at least two educators with whom Mr Firns worked had engaged in corrupt conduct by ordering the students essays to be marked again without any reference to his earlier concerns Its report detailed ways the universitys plagiarism policies could be improved  Although Newcastle initially fought the reports findings it has now accepted them administrators there say and welcomes the closure it now hopes they will bring  This has gone on for years now rumbling on and on both locally and internationally sighs the universitys president Nicholas Saunders an outsider appointed to the position at the student institution last October Officials at Wira declined to be interviewed for this article