A SCOTTISH university has blamed a computer system error after mistakenly sending final year students an email telling them they were not expected to graduate.

Edinburgh University has told students to ignore the message which told candidates they had not achieved sufficient credits to receive their degree.

A university spokesman said: "Our preliminary investigation suggests these emails were regrettably issued as a result of a system error.

"There was no breach of our systems and no student data was compromised. The university has written to all students affected to reassure them that their graduations have not been cancelled and asking them to ignore the emails."

A statement from the university's Student Systems and Administration department added: "We are aware that a number of final year students have received an email, apparently from the university, informing them that their graduation has been cancelled.

"Please ignore this message. No graduations have been cancelled. Your final degree results will be released in line with the published schedule. We are looking urgently into this situation.

Several students took to social media to criticise the university for the error, which happened in the early hours of Thursday morning.

One, named Calum, tweeted a copy of his email with the message: "The University of Edinburgh sent this to all final year undergraduates this morning in error. Pretty big error to make."

Another called Hannah said: "Honestly the worst thing to wake up to, Edinburgh University you are ridiculous." Ruth tweeted: "Massive anxiety and distress caused by Edinburgh University emailing all final years saying they failed."

The email was titled "Graduation Ceremony Cancelled - No Award" and told students they would not be graduating until later in the year. The university has more than 24,000 undergraduates, with degree programmes typically lasting four years.