Admissions algorithm error causes ‘chaos’ for Spanish students

More than 2,000 Spanish students have signed a petition demanding transparency after a faulty algorithm resulted in candidates appearing to erroneously drop down university waiting lists.

In the southern region of Andalusia, applicants not yet allocated a university place are ordered by their Evaluation for University Admission (EVAU) grade on a series of waiting lists per course and institution. Earlier this month, students noticed a variety of seemingly incorrect results: some did not advance in the list despite others ahead of them doing so, while others saw a precipitous drop in their position.

Other errors meant students with higher grades appeared to rank below those with lower grades, or multiple applicants sharing the same spot on a waiting list.

In a statement, the Andalusian Department of Universities, Research and Innovation said the waiting list “distortions” were the result of an algorithm which has now been redesigned, adding that students now appeared in their correct position on the lists.

The government department said the algorithm error “has had no impact” on university admissions, asserting that “the allocation of places for undergraduate degrees has been carried out correctly”.

After hearing from more than 700 impacted applicants, Bianca López Martín, a first-year nursing student at the University of Granada, started the petition on Change.org. The students’ demands of the Andalusian government include the publication of all waiting lists and existing enrolments, a public acknowledgement of the issues and compensation for those impacted.

Ms López Martín told Times Higher Education that the applicants affected by the issue had been “in chaos and very angry”. Some students who believed they were near the top of the waiting list had signed leases on accommodation near their university of choice, she said, only to learn that they would not be imminently admitted; others had enrolled on other courses or at universities outside Andalusia after believing they were too low on the list to win a place.

Lucía, a first-year nursing student who asked not to use her full name, told THE that she had rented an apartment in Cadiz after placing 15th on the waiting list for her institution of choice, the University of Cadiz. After dropping to 46th on the list, she was forced to enrol at her second choice, the University of Huelva, and find new accommodation. “I’m paying for two apartments right now,” she said.

Laura, a student from Granada, said she had not moved at all on two waiting lists, and had dropped positions in more than half. On the waiting list for her first-choice course, medicine at the University of Granada, she dropped 97 positions – “a brutal amount in my opinion”, she said.

The Andalusian government’s insistence that the algorithm issue has been resolved, the students said, has not adequately redressed the problems created. “It caused confusion and harm,” Ms López Martín said.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com