Leeds City College A level students furious after internet issues delay exam results

Leeds City College posted a number of statements on social media regarding technical issues in the past 24 hours.

The first post from the college said: "We’re experiencing some issues with our systems today, which is impacting our website and emails.

"Please don’t worry! We’re working very hard to get back up and running as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience."

However just hours later, the college told students that their exam results would be sent in the post rather than put online due to the issue - delaying the process for many students who anticipated logging on for instant results.

UCAS updated this morning to show students their university offers, however the system does not show individual results.

One student, talking to the Yorkshire Evening Post, said she had been working towards the results for the past three years.

She said she now has just 24 hours to respond to her chosen University - despite not knowing her results until the post arrives, potentially next week.

The students aid: "A lot of people have been working towards this day for the past two or three years.

"A lot of my friends only have 24 hours to respond to their chosen university with their results so could potentially miss out.

"They have told us multiple excuses on what’s happening so no one really knows anything."

Samantha Walker told the Yorkshire Evening Post that her daughter Mackenzie - a student at the college - had been 'left in limbo' and awaiting the postman.

She said: "I only found out this morning that they had posted on social media last night that the college's internet was down and that they will post results out today.

"My daughter wasn’t offered to collect her results and the college are not responding with any explanation or resolution to this.

"While the rest of the country get their results, our kids are left in limbo waiting for the post man.

"My daughter is devastated."

Alex Sobel - MP for Leeds North West - also tweeted about the situation - calling for an 'urgent meeting' of college governers.

Mr Sobel MP tweeted: "Its distressing to think that in an already deeply stressful situation the College couldn’t have put in an interim solution to give them connectivity.

"I hope the College Board of Governors will convene an urgent meeting to find out what happened and ensure it doesn’t happen again."

Bill Jones, Principle of Leeds City College said: "Unfortunately we have been experiencing some technical difficulties, which has meant that we have not been able to use our emails, internet and phone systems as usual.

"We appreciate that this has caused some of our A Level and Level 3 students issues in terms of being able to access their results online. We are truly sorry that this happened at such an important time for them. We know how hard our students have been working, especially given the challenges they’ve been facing due to Covid-19.

"Resolving these issues has been an absolute priority for us and our IT team has been working around the clock to try and not only fix the problem, but also create some solutions to help offer our students support in the interim. All student results have been sent out first class and they are due to arrive on Friday 14th August.

"We have also set up some additional support options for our students:

"For any students that want to receive their results sooner, we have opened up our Park Lane campus (main reception) between 5pm-8pm (13th August).

"We have set up dedicated phone lines to help with any questions regarding both results and enrolment for September.

"We have also been working on creating new microsites for each college, which will allow students to talk directly with our team via a web chat function or by organising for us to call them back.

"These are unprecedented circumstances, but we can’t apologise enough for the stress and inconvenience this has caused our students, as well as their parents and guardians."

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Thank you

Laura Collins