A tertiary institution in Hong Kong has apologised for mistakenly sending an acceptance email to all 11,139 of its applicants and asking them to pay an acceptance fee. The school, Tung Wah College (TWC) in Kowloon, said the error was an administrative oversight.
The blunder on Wednesday sparked angry complaints online for briefly raising the hopes of candidates waiting for university offers, only to dash them hours later.
More than 45,000 students learned about their allocation results on Wednesday morning. They used the city’s university entrance exam results to sign up for tertiary institutions through the Joint University Programmes Admissions System (Jupas).
How has TWC responded?
A spokeswoman for TWC confirmed the mistake and apologised for the inconvenience caused in a reply to the South China Morning Post.
“Tung Wah College intended to send an email to Jupas applicants who had been accepted by the college, reminding them to confirm their acceptance and pay the deposit before the deadline. However, due to human error, the email was mistakenly sent to all applicants,” she said.
“Upon learning of the incident, the college immediately took action and sent a clarification email to those affected.”
The spokeswoman said the institution took the incident very seriously and had immediately established a crisis management team to follow up on the matter.
“The college is also conducting a comprehensive review of the message delivery process, email system and staffing arrangements,” she said.
“The college will further optimise its monitoring processes and information delivery mechanisms to ensure that similar incidents do not recur.”
What happened?
According to the screenshots shared on social media, TWC’s initial email went out at 9am, congratulating applicants and requesting a HK$5,000 (US$637.50) acceptance fee to secure their spots.
At 3pm, six hours later, TWC sent a letter to applicants to “sincerely apologise for an administrative error”, saying all final offer results were subject to official confirmation via the Jupas portal.
“We understand our email may cause confusion and distress, and we deeply regret any inconvenience or disappointment this oversight has caused,” it said in the letter, adding it would review the internal processes to ensure this would not happen again.
How have applicants responded?
Distressed applicants posted screenshots of both the offer email and the subsequent email of apology, voicing frustration over the oversight.
“How ridiculous can this be? I thought I was admitted to TWC and was so relieved I would not have to enrol in an associate degree programme. Then TWC sent an apology letter saying the offer was sent by mistake,” wrote one applicant using the handle seorang_li.
Another user, Emily, shared the emotional toll the error took on her.
“I am so devastated,” she said. “Could anyone actually give me an offer?”
Founded by Tung Wah Group of Hospitals in 2010, Tung Wah College is a self-financing degree-granting tertiary institution in Hong Kong with 16 years of history. It is known for its strength in healthcare education.
