Certain students at University College, Oxford, have been left humiliated after an administration error led to a list of the 50 worst performing students being sent to the entire college.

The Excel document contained the names, subjects and percentage marks of students who achieved a 2:2 or less in Michaelmas collections - progress exams which Oxford students sit at the end of each term. These results do not count towards their final degree mark. Nine lawyers and six engineers were among those identified by the mistake.

A second email was sent to students soon after, asking them to delete the email since “it contained inaccuracies”. Speaking to the Oxford Tab, a student on the list, who did not wish to be identified, said: “I don’t ever want to do collections again. I was pretty gutted after my results last term, but didn’t realise I would be publicly humiliated. I can’t even go into college any more.”

Another student said: “Of course, everyone on the list is just trying to laugh it off. But in reality, no one feels comfortable with having something so personal shared with the entire college.” However, not all students were concerned about the mistake. “I don’t feel as though there’s any pervasive feeling or undercurrent of betrayal. Someone made a mistake, shit happens. I’ve gotten over it”, said Otamere Guobadia, a second year lawyer who was named on the list. “Failing a collection doesn’t make you stupid”, he added.

Kristiana Dahl, the college’s academic administrator, who Guobadia called “lovely and ruthlessly efficient”, was said to be “mortified” by her mistake. University College’s Senior Tutor has also apologised to students. “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”, said Dr Anne Knowland. She added: “University College takes the treatment of sensitive data very seriously.”

Dr Knowland also sought to emphasise that collections are primarily intended to help tutors in “identifying problems and give students an opportunity to practise sitting examinations, improve exam techniques, and understand methods of assessment and marking criteria.” JCR President Abigail Reeves praised the way in which the college handled the situation. After meeting with Dr Knowland, Reeves emailed students to assure them that action was being taken to ensure that such an incident would never happen again. 

University College is one of the oldest colleges of the University of Oxford. Notable alumni include Bill Clinton, Clement Attlee and Stephen Hawking, who is now a Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College.