What makes an unsatifactory academic reference?

Don't know about UCLAN in particular but if your teacher has written a bad reference for you that makes the uni reject your offer, either the teacher has contradicted your ps or predicted grades or has written you out to be unsuitable for the applied course

I know someone whose referee wrote down the wrong name in the reference... but they were not rejected

It's unlikely they wrote you out to be a bad candidate but rather their reference was unsuitable i.e. in med it's important that applicants are good at communication so teacher references should say that this applicant is good at communication in their reference, a reference without this is less strong. However, teachers may not know what to write in your reference (i.e. they may have never done one for your specific uni and course) so it's good (it you are getting another teacher reference) to research the skills required for the course and let your teacher know, also tell them about the relevant things that demonstrate your skills, e.g. Communication - on DofE I communicated route directions with my team. I literally wrote a list of skills and relevant things that I would like my teacher to include - remember you can collaborate with your teacher to write your academic reference!!!

I see. I initially recieved an offer from my uni but the only thing left was the reference. The process took so long that the course already started and I was still waiting for my reference to get through. 2 weeks after the course started, I was told that I was rejected because of unsatisfactory reference. I contacted the uni for further feedback but I did not get any reply. I also emailed my teacher who wrote my reference and he too did not reply. Since then, I always kept wondering as to what went wrong.

What the title says. I was wondering what is UCLAN looking for in an academic reference for students. Do they look for any reason why a particular student is suitable for the subject only or much more? I applied last year and got rejected for it from UCLAN even after meeting my grades for the course. Any examples of what you are looking for? Thanks.