400 Students' Places Withdrawn After University Blunder

More than 400 students who were told they had a place at the University of Ulster have now had their unconditional offers withdrawn as they were the result of a computer mistake.

Professor Millar, dean of the faculty of computing and engineering at the Jordanstown campus, said an e-mail was sent out to all applicants in the system telling them they had unconditional offers to study there.

But in a mistake that will be crushing for the hundreds affected, the e-mail was sent to everyone and the university will now be contacting teenagers who let them know individually whether they actually have places or not.

Professor Millar apologised for the blunder on the BBC's Nolan Show and advised students to check UCAS for the most up-to-date response to their application.

He said: "We normally carried out the process by postal service and this is the first time we had tried this new system of communication with applicants by email.

"Clearly things have gone wrong and that's something we would want to put right and we will put additional checks in place to ensure that this is not repeated.

"I would love to be in a situation where we could tell these applicants, yes, we will stand over this and honour this, however that is not going to happen."

The mistake was confined to one faculty.

SDLP education spokesman Sean Rogers told the Belfast Telegraph: "This is a totally shambolic situation which has left many students and their families upset and uncertain. Not only have students had the places they were offered withdrawn but they have also missed a day of clearing to attempt to get into other courses."

Mr Rogers called on the Department for Employment and Learning to step in.

The irony of a department that teaches computing making such a big computer mistake will undoubtedly not be lost on students.

(NE)