How a Ghanaian used Photoshop to create fake PhD awards

A 28-year-old Ghanaian ‘scholar’ and former student of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) who was last week in the news for achieving academic laurels from the University of Amsterdam, has been exposed as it turned out that all the 5 awards he claimed to have won were all fake.

Sebastian Roy Osumanu claimed to have been the most successful PhD student at the University of Amsterdam during its graduation on September 1, 2017 and was literally on every news portal locally and internationally for achieving such a feat in academics.

It was reported that that the former Protocol Prefect of Breman Asikuma Senior High School in the Central Region, had his first degree from University of Cape Coast where he chalked a lot of successes, graduating with a distinction in Economics.

He then proceeded to the University of Amsterdam through the Erasmus Mundus program in 2014 to pursue a masters’ program in Financial Economics. He allegedly swept 5 of 7 awards at the graduation which includes; Best Economics Researcher( Golden Pens), Best Graduating student, 2017 Research Awards, 2017 Millennium Doctorate Best Male award and the School of Business Honor.

There are claims he has been offered a Chief Economist appointment by the World Bank Group to join the Europe Financial Analyst team in Macedonia.

But Pulse.com.gh first reported that the claims were untrue after conducting some background checks.

This was given some credence on Monday night when mynewsgh.com received a response to a mail from University of Amsterdam Press Office to confirm if the claims were true or otherwise.

We reproduce the response to our mail below

Dear Stephen,

To answer your question:

We can find no record of one Sebastian Roy Osumanu having enrolled at the University of Amsterdam as either a student or a PhD researcher, let alone of him having obtained a doctorate degree with 5 awards.

Moreover, the university was still in recess on Friday 1 September (the day he is supposed to have defended his PhD). The first doctoral defence ceremony only took place five days later on Wednesday, 6 September.

What’s more, our doctoral candidates do not wear togas to their defence ceremonies.

All of this strongly suggests that the entire story is a fabrication.

Kind regards,

Johan Rheeder

University of Amsterdam

Communications Office

Johan Rheeder

Press Officer

P.O. Box 19268 | 1000 GG Amsterdam

Spui 21 | 1012 WX Amsterdam

T 020 525 3591

www.uva.nl/en Mon. | Tues. | Wed. | Thurs.

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It was gathered that most of the images were photoshopped according to authorities of the University of Amsterdam with further investigations by Pulse.com.gh