An email telling applicants they have been accepted to the University of Ulster’s faculty of computing and engineering is believed to have been accidentally sent to all applicants instead.
This means some 370 applicants who really have not been accepted have had their offers of a place rescinded, resulting in upset students and parents.
Some students are now scrambling to make other plans after having turned down other schools and opportunities, believing they were heading to the Northern Ireland university, The Belfast Telegraph reported.
The dean of the faculty, Prof Richard Millar, apologised for the gaffe on BBC Radio Ulster’s Nolan Show and said the faculty “had contacted everyone by email so they have had as quick a response to this as possible,” he said.
“As that email had indicated, the actual status of those students is that we have not yet taken a decision on them. As we take a decision on those students, they will be contacted personally.”
Millar said students should use Ucas as the best indication of the status of their applications.
