Students found guilty of leaking exam papers from the University of South Africa (Unisa) could be suspended from the institution for up to five years and lose their marks.

“The university is confident that the alleged perpetrators will be apprehended soon and they will face the full might of the justice system,” Unisa said in a statement on Monday. 

This comes after the university confirmed on Thursday that examination question papers scheduled to be written during the May/June 2019 exam were “compromised”.

Unisa said on Monday it was working with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and police to investigate the leak.

Unisa reiterated that exams would continue as scheduled.

“Where there is a strong suspicion that a student may have had access to an affected examination paper, the script concerned will be sent to the investigators for further investigation. The rest of the results will be released as planned.”

It added: “In the instance where students, having realised that an examination paper has been compromised, have walked out of the examination room without writing the examination, the university will afford them another opportunity to write their examination.”