A clerical error almost cost an academic high flier his future.

As record numbers of students scramble for the few remaining university places, Tim Brazier was told he had missed out on a course at the University of Warwick because an exam board failed to add his marks up correctly.

The 18-year-old needed to gain two A grades and a B in his A levels to study accountancy and finance at the university.

However when he went to collect his results from Brighton College Tim discovered he had achieved an A grade in maths and B in biology, as expected, but had also been awarded an unexpected B in economics.

He was just three marks short of the A grade he needed.

Teaching staff, who had expected Tim to achieve the top grade immediately, applied for one of his modules to be re-marked, as the score in that particular paper seemed low.

Later that day Edexcel exam board admitted there had been a clerical error and the wrong mark had been given for Tim’s module.

He had in fact achieved an A.

A scanned copy of the updated result was emailed to the University of Warwick by both Tim and Brighton College but the institution demanded further proof of his achievement.

He was also told that even if he was accepted, there would be no accommodation for him, despite previously receiving university information stating that no allocation of student housing would be made until August 31.

Finally, after calls from headmaster Richard Cairns, senior teachers and Tim, Warwick honoured its offer and Tim was also given accommodation.

However the mix-up led Brighton College’s head of sixth form, Mark Beard, to question whether the university system is already overstretched and under-funded.

He said: “Students have until September 2 to demonstrate that they have achieved the required grades to take up their university places.

“Many will be seeking re-marks of papers where they have narrowly missed out.

“If there are many other examples of clerical or marking errors around the country and more students find that they have in fact met their university offers, there can only be even greater chaos in the days ahead.”

A spokesman for the University of Warwick said: “We cannot comment on individual cases.

“In general we will look at all remark situations and in most cases will look to see whether it is possible to offer a place for the following year.

“We have a tight window between the results coming out and allocating places and that window has been made even tighter by the numbers of places available at universities this year.”