By Kelly Eve

Last updated at 10:30, Saturday, 20 August 2011

A Carlisle teenager’s dream of becoming a physiotherapist has been dashed after he missed out on a university place thanks to a double blow on exam results day.

Mike Smith

Mike Smith, a national hockey umpire, fell victim to a blunder on Thursday when he was given the wrong overall grade for PE and was then among the thousands of students left in limbo when the website which informs them if they have been successful in getting in their chosen university crashed.

Mike had been given a C but a breakdown of how well he had done in exams and coursework highlighted an error.

Paperwork recorded that Mike, of Currock, had failed the coursework element to his two-year course, receiving a U (ungraded) mark.

He had been told he would most likely get an A when the coursework was completed earlier in the year.

So as he struggled to confirm his correct grade with his exam board, 18-year-old Mike spent hours with his teachers at Richard Rose Central Academy online trying to discover if he had got his place to do physiotherapy at Northumbria University.

He joined the thousands who were flooding the Ucas website when it crashed for several hours and left many uncertain about their futures.

Students must be notified by Ucas if they have been granted their chosen place before they can enter the clearing process – the rush for left-over places elsewhere. Often universities will offer places to students even when they don’t achieve the grades they were initially asked to.

Demand has soared this year because students are scrambling to get a place before higher tuition fees – of up to £9,000 a year – are introduced in 2012.

At Thursday’s peak, the Ucas website was receiving 644 visits every second.

After a five-hour battle Mike discovered his upgraded B in PE was not enough to get him to Northumbria and by the time the problem had been clarified all remaining physiotherapy places elsewhere in clearing had gone.

Mike is now planning to return to the city centre academy to redo some elements of his courses in a bid to improve his overall grades in psychology, history and PE and his chance of securing a place next year.

He said: “The C going up to a B was still not enough to get me on the course at Northumbria, but by the time I got that news of the grade through all the places on physiotherapy courses through clearing had gone.

“It is disappointing about being caught up in all of it but I’m going to go back and do some more work on a couple of the courses.

“I think I’m feeling anger in myself because I know I could’ve done a bit more to get better grades."

Mike does not expect to face the increased tuition fees most university students will have to pay from September 2012.

Physiotherapy is among the many health-related courses where costs are covered by the NHS as part of a national arrangement to meet future workforce needs.

First published at 08:55, Saturday, 20 August 2011
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk