University of Ulster in Northern Ireland made a serious gaffe when they emailed acceptance notices to 370 students who hadn’t actually been accepted. Now, the University is righting its wrong by honoring the acceptances that were emailed in error.

TheJournal.ie reports on the University of Ulster’s mistake and the 370 students' reversal of fortunes. Initially, University of Ulster had emailed acceptance notices to the 370 students who had applied for places in the Engineering Management course, despite having room for only about half that number.

A few hours later, a follow-up email explained that the first email had been sent in error. The emails had been sent out last Thursday, the same day that the UK’s A-Level results were released.

The mistake would have caused particular concern to students who had taken their University of Ulster acceptance, and quickly withdrew from other universities they may have applied to.

The University, however, has now decided to honor 350 of the emails they had mistakenly issued, whether or not the student actually qualified via their A-Levels. The remaining 20 applications are pending on the release of their final exam grades.

The college is now preparing for the large new class for this coming school year by adding additional staff. The university is likely to exceed its maximum student count and will face fines from the government there.

Professor Richard Millar, the Dean of the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, said that those who “received the congratulatory email in error from the Faculty, and for whom the University has a full set of examination results, are now having their place in the University confirmed.”