Oxford University apologises after students were emailed a list of their worst-performing peers' marks

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Oxford University has apologised after an administrator accidentally emailed a list of poorly performing students’ marks to their peers yesterday.

The email disclosed the names of students who were awarded marks graded 2.2 and below in their first-term exams at University College.

The Oxford Student newspaper reported that a mistake on an Excel document meant that the names and marks of almost 50 students were sent out on an email originally written to inform students of timetables for upcoming exams.

Abigail Reeves, president of the University College’s JCR, said that the staff member responsible was “mortified” by the mistake.

Dr Anne Knowland, who is the senior tutor of University College, said: “We would like to apologise to all students affected by this inadvertent disclosure for any distress this has caused and reassure them that we are investigating exactly how this happened and are determined to make sure this does not happen again. University College takes the treatment of sensitive data very seriously.”

It is believed that the email may have been sent to hundreds of students. The college has 372 undergraduate and 221 graduate students.

Tam Guobadia, a second-year law student who was listed as one of the students with bad results, said: “I personally find it quite funny but I understand why some people might be upset”.