AN investigation has been launched after students received lower grades in their exams than they should have due to a technical error.

Government regulator Ofqual has started an investigation into exam board AQA after it emerged 150 A-level students, 290 AS level students and 190 GCSE pupils, had been given the wrong grades because of problems marking a new answer sheet.

This means some students could have missed out on university places if they failed to meet conditional offers because of the mix-up.

It is believed the problems with a new answer sheet were caused because they were scanned and sent electronically to markers, rather than in paper form.

But not all pages of some answer sheets were scanned, which meant students missed out on marks.

The technical error first came to light in The Northern Echo last week, when it was revealed 5,000 papers were being marked again because of the problems.

The exam board, which has also launched an internal investigation, has said in addition to the students whose grades have been altered, there were also students whose marks changed, but their grades were unaffected.

They have not revealed how many students in the region are affected.

Isabel Nisbet, chief executive of Ofqual, said; “This is a very serious matter. Ofqual is in full agreement with AQA that the first priority is to support students, schools and colleges.

“AQA has assured us that they will make sure that the affected candidates are treated fairly and receive the marks their work merits as soon as possible.

“Once that is done, Ofqual’s inquiry will focus on what went wrong and why it was not spotted sooner.”

The findings of the Ofqual inquiry will be made public.

Andrew Hall, AQA’s chief executive, said: “We are extremely sorry for any distress caused as a result of the original incomplete mark and are reviewing our processes to ensure there is no repeat of this error.”

The AQA helpline number for schools and colleges affected is 0844-209-6614.