Pupils across the country were not due to find out how they performed in their school exams until this morning.

However, yesterday, 370 applicants to Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, were sent emails telling them they had been accepted on to courses at the business school.

The email stated: "Con-gratulations on your unconditional offer to study at Aber- deen Business School and thank you for making your application to study with us. We very much look forward to welcoming you on to the course and I hope that if you have any queries about your course of study or indeed the mode of study that you will let us know directly."

Last week, a similar blunder saw 65 students from St Andrews able to access their results prematurely by logging on to the university's website.

The situation has arisen because schools, colleges and universities receive the results of Highers and Advanced Highers a week before pupils do to allow them to plan for courses.

Last night, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) launched an inquiry into what had happened.

An SQA spokesman said: "We are expressing our frustration in the strongest possible terms and demanding a detailed explanation from RGU."

A spokesman for Robert Gordon said: "An email which was scheduled to go out on Tuesday to applicants was sent on Monday morning by mistake. The email was cancelled as soon as the error was spotted, but 370 applicants had already received it.

"An email will be resent tomorrow to all students who have an unconditional offer at the university. We would like to apologise for any confusion or anxiety caused by this mistake."