to think that the University of Manchester have acted unprofessionally?

[leprechauncream]

My DD is applying to university this year. Manchester was her top choice. We had been to an Open Day and she really loved the course, the university and the city. She was extremely keen to go there.

On Wednesday this week DD received an e-mail from Manchester University saying 'We are extremely pleased to extend an offer for a place...you will receive written confirmation of the terms of our offer from UCAS'. The e-mail went on to invite her to an Open Day and suggested several dates.

My DD was delighted, as were we all - champagne was opened, she posted this exciting news on Facebook and went out with her best friend to celebrate.

Fast forward 26 hours later and DD receives another e-mail from Manchester University. This states that a large number of letters had been sent out 'regarding an invitation to Open Day' as a result of a computer error, that no decision had in fact been made, and that they were sorry for any 'confusion'. The e-mail starts off 'Hi' and concludes with 'Cheers'.

My DD was distraught at reading this e-mail - she feels disappointed, let down and humiliated, and cannot understand how the second e-mail can have been worded so casually and inappropriately. This was a serious mistake which took over 24 hours to rectify. Most prospective students find the whole application process hugely stressful and I find it astonishing that the admissions staff of such a reputable university can have behaved so unprofessionally.

Yes, DD may yet get an offer from Manchester but even if she does, the gloss has been removed from it. She has offers from several other universities and is now wondering whether or not she wants to go to Manchester at all.

AIBU to consider that Manchester University have behaved completely unprofessionally here?

I had an unconditional offer to read maths at Bristol University... although it was 15 years ago!

Hi leprechaun

Get your daughter to check her UCAS page. If Manchester have sent this info to UCAS then it's binding and they'll have to honour their offer to her. You can talk to UCAS about this.

A C (conditional) or U (unconditional) will appear next to the course she's applied for at Manchester.

Either way it's still worth complaining. You absolutely won't jeopardise her place there and they need to know how much of a bloody mess they've made. Your daughter won't be the only one this has happened to (she could look at the forums on UCAS to see if this has happened to others).

Would agree with SandStorm - I'd make my point by contacting Manchester to check, because 'the email sent out used a tone and language which made us unsure whether it was genuine.'

I got an unconditional offer from KCL to study Eng Lit , erm, 9 years ago. & my uni boyfriend had a UC from Imperial for Electrical & electronic engineering at the same time.

Fabby, one of my friends had an unconditional offer to read maths at Cambridge so it happens if the student is talented enough.

YANBU.

I auditioned for The Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama. Got through to the second round, auditioned again and was told that the successful ones would get a letter and the ones who weren't would receive nothing.

Two weeks later, I'm awoken by my mother screeching at the top of her lungs and waving a letter marked RWCMD in my face. I ripped it open and read "RWCMD regrets to inform you that you have been unsuccesful...."

I cried for a good few weeks. I was despondant. My mother was absolutely and utterly furious that they had decided to send out letters to the unsuccessful ones.

I would have been fine with everything, had nothing arrived. I would have been upset, sure! But I would have taken it with a pinch of salt and moved on. It was the building-up of my hopes and the certainty that I'd managed it... only to have it come crashing down on top of my head.

You really are not being unreasonable in the slightest.

It's not good enough - shoddy admin on someone's part.

But I have to say that you are prob dealing with a temp admin assistant on 8ph in a group, within a dept, within a school, within man uni. So don't view it as some terrible victimisation an enormous entity has chosen to make.

That said, awful for your daughter. Character forming but awful. She's at an impressionable age so I would be going for the rising above it, not cutting your nose off to spite your face approach. Don't let her think of herself as a victim.

I got a conditional offer to read English: my ex's offer to read History was two Es so basically unconditional. Same university.

Surely though if anyone is to compain about this it should be the student?

Conditional or unconditional offers depend on the university, the course and the number of applications received.

Marketing departments of lots of universities, especially the chickenshit one I work for, think that being informal makes them more popular and helps them look cooler with ver yoof. They tend to forget that it makes them look like a bunch of incompetent twats for anyone with a modicum of intelligence, whatever age they might be. But then most universities aren't really interested in attracting intelligent students, just the ones that can afford to pay the fees.

Seems pretty unprofessional to me. Either that or its silly trick by a "friend". Have you checked the full header on the email to see if it really appears to come from Manchester uni?

By the way Fabby my ex boyfriend got an unconditional offer to read maths at Cambridge. Obviously they thought he'd make the cut without having to produce a collection of A Level grades to prove it.

UANBU very careless and very casual, they ought to be ashamed.
University admin can be crap.
I changed courses, turned up first day of the new one.
Lecturer looks at me "oh, I forgot you were coming"
Scurries off and returns with paperwork in someone else's name.
At my first tutorial I discover this was someone who's funding fell through at the last minute.
Have always wondered what would have happened if we'd both turned up.

Fabby my DH had an UO to read Maths... at Manchester.

I had an unconditional offer for my 'silly' nursing degree...

That's horrendous.

Just want to say that my oldest two (and DD is only first year at uni) never got emails from the unis themselves, they had to check through the tracking website. Horrible idea of a joke or scam if it was.

My daughter was invited to an open day and interview at Manchester last year and tbh it was all rather disorganised. The open day for her course at Sheffield on the other hand was superbly organised for prospective students and parents and my daughter is now at Sheffield - with quite a few of the students she had seen at the Manchester open day.

YANBU. That is crap and you should complain.

Please tell your daughter not to let it put her off Manchester though if that is where she really wants to go. It's entirely possible that the mistake and the shoddy email came from the central administration, not the department she wants to study with. At the university where I work, all the admissions had been centralised (and it's a total shambles here too).

YANBU, that's a very poor way to treat stressed applicants.

I agree with those who say that she shouldn't let it put her off but I would also check to make sure the second email is genuine and politely mention that it the matey tone of it just compounds the original error.

I too had an unconditonal offer from Manchester, many years ago and I kept it as my second choice but didn't go as I got into my first choice. I know its a while ago but in those days unconditional offers were given to try and get the students the courses wanted rather than to fill up spaces in second rate subjects.

im tracking my application via ucas and would be devasted if i was your dd.its an emotional rollercoaster as it is without the uni fucking up.

Thank you for all your comments. I'm glad that you don't think I am overreacting. I am sure that the e-mails were from the university and I am still in two minds whether or not to complain. I don't want to get anyone into trouble but, at the same time, I would expect that the university would want to know about this, as presumably there are a lot of other angry and upset students and this reflects very badly on them. Yes, this is a massivley stressful time for those applying to uni - and theri parents!

I went to Manchester and work at another university now (on the admin rather than academic side), and think you have grounds to complain (or "give feedback" if you are worried about it affecting her chances, which it wouldn't anyway). What a crap thing to happen. It's clearly a cock-up and they should be aware that people are unhappy so that they can ensure it doesn't happen again. Any professional university administrator would not be offended by your comment, but would want to see things improved so they can give better customer service. Good luck - I hope she gets a place, I had a great 4 years there!

DS got an email from Bristol rejecting him, a few days ago. The following day he got an acceptance through UCAS.

Not as bad as Leprechaun's DD, but it just shows mistakes do happen.

My uni has the lousiest most incompetent admin department and I would identify it if that did not compromise my anonymity here.

DD needs to be prepared for three-six years of administrative incompetence and this, sadly is the start of it.

Most uni's seem to have this problem so do not use this as selection criteria.

I am stunned anyone wants to say 'mistakes happen'. That is awful. They should have been grovellingly apologetic.

I bet she doesn't want to go there, no wonder.

I'm so sorry she has been through this, I am feeling so badly for your DD.