New College students Danielle Flack, 17, from Stratton; Liz Morphew, 17, from West Swindon; Paul Davidson, 17, from Nythe; Jordi Milward, 18, from Wootton BassettA COURSEWORK fiasco at New College that left more than 70 students following the wrong syllabus has finally been resolved.

The college has won its third appeal, which means the 74 AS level media studies who spent five months completing the work, won't have to re-do it.

The problem arose in July when it emerged staff had mistakenly used the wrong material for the radio production module, which accounted for a third of the final grade.

The students had been following the 2003 syllabus, instead of the 2004 one, and up until now, examiners had refused to mark the work.

All 74 students were given U grades and many had worried this could affect their university options.

Earlier in September, the college advised students to start re-doing the work on top of their usual A level workload because the college hadn't heard from the examining board OCR.

They undertook an extra two hours a week and some students had feared having to re-do the coursework would put added pressure on the rest of their work.

One student, 17-year-old John Groves, had questioned whether he would be able to carry on with the immense workload.

But now he says he is relieved the decision has been overturned.

He said: "It has saved me a lot of work and I'm very glad this decision has been reached.

"The teachers put forward our case and told the examining board that it wasn't fair on the students.

"Now I can carry on with my work as normal."

This decision means John's grade averages will be C, which is what he was hoping for.

Another student, Liz Morphew, 17, said: "It's such a relief that we don't have to do so much extra work and rewrite everything.

"We can just get on with our other work. It's a great weight off my shoulders."

Staff from the college Kim Wright, head of media, and Alan Williams, director of quality went to an appeals panel in Cambridge last week to argue their case.

Director of curriculum David Flavin said: "The college has learnt a lot from this experience.

"The success of the appeal shows it is worth pursuing these matters to their conclusion when an injustice has occurred."

At the appeal, the college argued that the problem occurred when the examiners sent material to the college's old address, even though they were informed of its new one.

Staff also told the board that because of the large number of students involved, it was reasonable for the decision to be overturned.

New College was one of many schools and colleges in the country to be affected.

Emma-Kate Lidbury