Confirmed Offer has been Retracted!

Yeah I thought so unfortunately. I’m not applying through UCAS also, but I’ve emailed back anyway. Not looking good then it seems!

I’ve been offered a conditional place for 2018/19 entry and have met the criteria/conditions, accepted the offer and received confirmation. However, I was emailed today saying they didn’t mean to offer me a place because of a clerical error.
I wondered what rights I have seeing as I’ve accepted the offer almost a week ago now. I don’t have any other choices so it’s high stakes for me!

That is awful! Contact UCAS and the university. When you enter into a contract with them that is on them too, not just the offer holder. I’m not sure legally how it applies to things such as this where mistakes can happen, but it’s worth talking to them about it, at least to complain because that is absolutely awful that a university could be so disorganised that they made an offer they ‘didn’t mean to’!

When an offer is made to the applicant, and accepted, this forms a legally binding contract between the university and the applicant. I am unsure, however, whether in order to terminate the contract, the university can do this themselves, or they must seek agreement from the applicant in this scenario. What university have you applied to, so I can check their terms and conditions of admission for you.

#LawStudents

It’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

It’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

Did you receive any email before the acceptance of the offer that could indicate the terms and conditions of your offer?

There was some terms and conditions but only on their online portal for accepting offers. I had a quick scan but unfortunately I didn’t pay much attention to whether or not they’d retract it!

There was some terms and conditions but only on their online portal for accepting offers. I had a quick scan but unfortunately I didn’t pay much attention to whether or not they’d retract it!

My understanding of the CMA guidance is the Universities do enter into a contract when an offer is made and accepted


"When an offer is accepted, the HE provider and prospective student enter into a contract. To comply with both pieces of legislation you should ensure that:"


From: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-consumer-law-advice-for-providers


You are at a disadvantage without UCAS to act as a mediator. I would recommend an email to an Admissions Manager or similar. They may be hoping that you'll just accept their email and go away.

I am afraid it is not as simple as all this. What I said three years ago was this:-

"This is an unresolved question.

The leading case on university (in fact the polytechnic admissions system) admissions Moran v University College, Salford

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct...,d.d2k&cad=rja

adopts a simple contractual analysis.

Although virtually nothing has changed for main scheme applications since that time, the idea that an acceptance of an unconditional offer amounts to a contract and acceptance of a conditional offer creates a contract with a condition precedent, is now fraught with difficulty.

When Moran was decided, there was no Adjustment. Adjustment does not require any agreement to release by the university and occurs after one would naturally say that a conditional contract had become unconditional by satisfying A level grades. There are ways of bringing adjustment into a contractual analysis but they are clumsy.

More serious is the issue of financing. At the time of Moran, a student grant included a course fee element. Every educational authority paid course fees to every university. It very much looks like a grant to satisfy a contractual liability of the student. The university had no direct relationship with the Council except to cash the Council's cheque.

SFE has a much closer connection with the universities despite SFE supposedly being a lender to the student. You can't see that as a three way contract because SFE are not on the scene when the UCAS offer is accepted. So the contract between the student and the university entered into on acceptance would have to have different terms if the student subsequently applies for SFE funding. There would be different terms again if he applies for Welsh finding etc etc.

Taking Occam's Razor to all of this, it is a lot easier to say that there is no intention to create legal relations until a student enrols."

Think on this, for every student who has an offer of his place withdrawn, there would be a thousand who fail to turn up on enrollment day. Can the universities sue each of these non-students for loss of profit on their fees?

Is it not more simple to say that for conditional offers, acceptance is enrolment? After all, it is clear that one can "release" oneself into clearing rather than take up a firm offer that has been met.

Or would it not be more analogous to relate UCAS offers to labour contracts? The university makes the offer conditional on the qualification of the candidate, who can accept the offer, but the university cannot compel performance?

I'd also add that the whole concept of UCAS offers being contracts has the unusual element of acceptance being complete, but secret - in the sense that a candidate can fulfil their conditions, but not know it. The candidate has AAA or whatever well before the point at which the offer is considered to be accepted - it's just that they do not have that knowledge.