Sixteen student hopefuls mistakenly received acceptance letters from Republic Polytechnic (RP), with the school later withdrawing the letters and apologising for the error.
One of them, who gave her name only as Ms Hou, told Lianhe Wanbao in a report on Sunday that she had received a letter of acceptance into the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in January.
She was then surprised to receive her letter of acceptance from RP in February.
However, on her first day at the polytechnic on April 16, she was told that her grades did not make the cut, and her placement was therefore withdrawn.
RP’s registrar, Mr Shanmugasundar W., told The Straits Times yesterday that it apologised to Ms Hou for “the mistake we made in evaluating her application to Republic Polytechnic, which resulted in her placement in the polytechnic being withdrawn on her first day of school”.
He said that the school has worked with Ms Hou to secure her a place in the ITE.
She has since matriculated into ITE College West’s accounting course, he said, adding: “We wish her all the best in her studies.”
RP said that it also discovered some discrepancies in the submitted and actual examination grades of 15 other students during verification checks.
After confirming that these students did not meet the admission criteria for RP’s courses, “we rescinded their places, out of fairness to other unsuccessful applicants”, said Mr Shanmugasundar.
He said that all 16 affected students have been considered for alternative placements, either in the ITE or the other polytechnics.
The school also said that it would refund the enrolment fees paid by the affected students.
Article & Photo from Straits Times