Min­is­ter of Youth De­vel­op­ment and Na­tion­al Ser­vice Fos­ter Cum­mings has re­spond­ed to claims that he was banned from pur­su­ing post­grad­u­ate stud­ies at a uni­ver­si­ty be­cause of pla­gia­rism.

Cum­mings said that ins 2007 a mat­ter arose re­gard­ing an "over­sight of not ref­er­enc­ing quo­ta­tions in the foot­notes al­though the book was cit­ed in the bib­li­og­ra­phy".

He said a dis­pute arose and the Uni­ver­si­ty dealt with the mat­ter and a com­mit­tee was con­vened to de­lib­er­ate on the is­sue fol­low­ing which a de­ci­sion was tak­en that he with­draw from the pro­gramme and re-en­ter af­ter one year.

He said he com­plied and nev­er asked that the rules be changed for his ben­e­fit.

The fol­low­ing is the full state­ment by Cum­mings.

"Ref­er­ence is be­ing made to an ear­li­er time, in 2007, when I was a post­grad­u­ate stu­dent at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies pur­su­ing a mas­ter’s de­gree in Gov­ern­ment in which an is­sue arose over the mat­ter of an over­sight of not ref­er­enc­ing quo­ta­tions in the foot­notes al­though the book was cit­ed in the bib­li­og­ra­phy.

A dis­pute arose and the Uni­ver­si­ty dealt with the mat­ter.

A com­mit­tee was con­vened to de­lib­er­ate on the is­sue, and a de­ci­sion was tak­en that I with­draw from the pro­gram and re-en­ter af­ter one year.

I ac­cept­ed and com­plied with this de­ci­sion, and du­ly re-reg­is­tered for the pro­gram af­ter the elapse of one year. I com­plet­ed the first se­mes­ter and when a lec­tur­er per­sist­ed in rais­ing the is­sue that led to my pre­vi­ous with­draw­al, I did not sit any of the ex­ams in the sec­ond se­mes­ter and did not com­plete that pro­gram of study.

I have nev­er asked any in­sti­tu­tion to bend its rules to ac­com­mo­date me. I sat my ex­ams, both at the Un­der­grad­u­ate and Post­grad­u­ate lev­els in the full view of my peers and oth­ers. An im­por­tant life les­son is that though one will make mis­takes or en­counter ob­sta­cles along the way, lessons should be learnt from them, which will lead to even greater suc­cess­es in the fu­ture.

In 2006, I com­plet­ed my bach­e­lor's de­gree in Gov­ern­ment and In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions at UWI, St. Au­gus­tine. It was a proud mo­ment for me be­ing the first mem­ber of my fam­i­ly to have ben­e­fit­ted from uni­ver­si­ty lev­el ed­u­ca­tion.

My ex­pe­ri­ence at the Uni­ver­si­ty dur­ing that pe­ri­od was re­ward­ing and life chang­ing. I was elect­ed as a Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment in Au­gust 2020 and in an ef­fort to pre­pare my­self for the role ahead, I sub­se­quent­ly en­rolled in the Mas­ter of Busi­ness Ad­min­is­tra­tion Pro­gram in Lead­er­ship, En­tre­pre­neur­ship and In­no­va­tion at the School of Ac­count­ing and Man­age­ment, which I suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed.

I was award­ed a mas­ter’s de­gree with dis­tinc­tion and will grad­u­ate lat­er this year.

The cy­cle of re­silience- mis­take made, les­son learnt, fu­ture suc­cess ac­com­plished- is the prin­ci­ple I hold out to every young per­son as an in­valu­able life as­set, crit­i­cal for per­son­al de­vel­op­ment and ad­vance­ment. Don't let your mis­takes win; learn your lessons and move on up with hu­mil­i­ty and per­sis­tence!"