Results delay costs Northern students first round offers

SOME Northern school leavers have missed out on a third level place in the first round of offers from the Central Applications…

SOME Northern school leavers have missed out on a third level place in the first round of offers from the Central Applications Office because their A level results had not been forwarded in time to the CAO.

Offers are made to students from Northern Ireland and Britain on the basis of exam results sent electronically to the CAO by UCAS, its equivalent organisation in the UK.

However, the list of exam results forwarded to the CAO before the first round of offers this week was incomplete.

The omissions arose because UCAS was unable to trace the results obtained by some students.

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In other cases, the fault lay with the local examining board in Britain, which provided UCAS with the results too late.

A parent from Armagh who contacted The Irish Times said his daughter had missed out on a first round offer of a place in English in Trinity College because her examining board delayed issuing her exam certificate.

The students concerned must now wait to see if she obtains a place in the second round of CAO offers.

A spokesman for the CAO said that "a handful" of students were affected.

As a "failsafe", students from outside the Republic had been, asked to send in their exam results but these would arrive too late for consideration in the first round of offers.