Nearly 200 law students were incorrectly told they had failed their first set of Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) exams, in what the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has called “the most serious operational mistake that we’ve made in the last two and half years.”
Kaplan, the exam administrator for the SQE, has reissued its most recent set of SQE1 results from January this year, after discovering the error on 2 April.
One hundred and seventy five candidates were originally told they had failed their SQE1 exams following publication of their results in mid-March. Now, over a month later, Kaplan has reissued their results and these candidates have now passed. These candidates are expected to receive a £250 goodwill payment, paid for by Kaplan.
Zoe Robinson, Managing Director of Kaplan SQE, said: “The matter came to light when we started to investigate the appeals from the results. From our point of view transparency is the absolute priority.”
“We are committed to putting this right for candidates, and sincerely regret and apologise for the impact this has had for those affected. A goodwill payment of £250 is being offered to those candidates who were incorrectly told they had failed an assessment in recognition of the upset caused by this matter. In addition, we recognise that individual candidates who received the incorrect outcome may have been impacted by this in different ways. We would encourage candidates in this group, who have incurred losses as a direct result of this error, to contact our Candidate Services Team to outline your circumstances and each will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. We have set up a dedicated email address for this purpose.”
Robinson added: “We’re doing everything we can to put candidates back in the position they would have been in had this mistake not have happened.”
Other candidates have seen both a change in scores as well as their allocated quintile.
In a press conference, Zoe Robinson said: “175 candidates incorrectly told they failed an assessment when they had actually passed. In total, 182 outcomes were incorrect. We have reissued the results to all candidates. Everyone will have updated results; albeit their outcome may not change. Many will see small changes in their scores. The highest change is five marks either side. 303 have moved up by one quintile. 164 have moved down by one quintile.”
The mistake arose due to an administrative error following recent changes to the way candidates receive their results. Rather than their results being presented as a percentages, they are given a standardised score out of 500.
Andrew Conlan-Trant, vice president of strategic partnerships at Kaplan, said: “We need to look at this more widely. In the coming days we’re going to review how this came about and determine the root cause of this error. I have no doubt that when we finish that, we will be able to identify changes to our policies and processes.”
He promised “a case-by-case review for each of the affected candidates.”
In a joint statement, Kaplan and the SRA addressed that no other previous SQE assessment has been affected by this error.
The SRA is expected to conduct a full review of how the error occurred.
Paul Philip, Chief Executive at the SRA, said: “This is the most serious operational mistake that we’ve made in the last two and half years.”
“We are really disappointed by this error and apologise to the candidates who have been affected.
“Our immediate priority has been making sure the error has been put right as swiftly as possible, and the impact on candidates is recognised and addressed.
“We will be doing a full review with Kaplan of how the error occurred, and redoubling efforts on assurance, so we can reduce the risk of an error happening again.”
SQE2 booking will now be prioritised for those candidates who have been told they failed and have now passed.
Listen to The Lawyer’s Podcast: The SQE: students deserve better than this
If you have been affected by this story and want to talk to The Lawyer, contact charlotte.lear@thelawyer.com.
The Lawyer Podcast: The SQE: Students deserve better than this
It’s disappointing to see the latest from the Solicitors Regulation Authority in terms of their continuing problems with their running of the SQE. Mistakes do occur and have quite rightly been addressed in this case. However, there is a wider issue emerging here around the dialogue with firms, providers and students and how concerns are listened to and addressed. More clear communication is needed and a sense of careful planning and discussion rather than just ploughing on with the same systems. Otherwise, the really important stakeholders in all this, the students undergoing SQE, will continue to be under huge pressure and suffer from mistakes like this.