The University of Limerick (UL) could have to fork out up to €40m to fix an online student portal that was responsible for issuing nine bogus master’s degrees, writes Sarah McGuinness.
The scandal-hit university has so far approved a sum of €10m to overhaul its student record system, but that work has now been “paused” amid soaring costs.
The Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard last week that if “complexities” in repairing the system cannot be resolved, current works will have to be scrapped, and a new system will have to be built from scratch at a cost of between €20m and €30m.
Sources at the university have now confirmed that the student portal was responsible for the awarding of nine master’s degrees to students who did not receive the required grades to graduate.
The portal, which students use to access their grades, has been in place since 1998.
“Compensating failure” mechanisms, whereby if a …