A system glitch in one of the systems at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has caused examination results to be leaked one week in advance.

According to The Ridge, a student publication at NUS, examination results for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) could be accessed as early as Dec 16 last year, which was exactly one week before the results were meant to be released.

A student told Shin Min Daily News that the results were easily accessible with just a few clicks in their online student portal.

A forum thread within Hardware Zone titled "NUS Exams results leak - Keep us informed.." was created in May, 2007 and has over 1,000 replies since, with a forum comment stating that "results have been leaked in past semesters and wondering if the same will happen this time".

Another similar thread titled "NTU Exams results leak - keep us informed.." has also been created but there are only about 80 over replies.

Vice Dean of Undergraduate Matters, Associate Professor John Richardson, told the student publication that the error was rectified as soon as the problem was discovered.

Prof Richardson used an analogy of "a student discovering a result slip on the floor and passing on the information to friends and classmates" to describe this incident.

He also stressed on the fact that hacking into the university's system is a serious offence. Although there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding the incident, students have been advised to refrain from actively seeking loopholes or leaks.

"Perhaps students are too concerned about their grades these days. Passion and love for learning should be their focus," told Prof Richardson to The Ridge.

Mrs Karen Tong, Assistant Manager of the Dean's Office, commented that the university usually releases examination results about two weeks after the examinations end and this is considerably fast compared to other universities.

Shin Min Daily News interviewed Prof Richardson and the latter told the Chinese Evening Dailies that this has never happened to the FASS before.

Other faculties within NUS have been informed and will do their respective system checks.

He also told Shin Min Daily News that students who accessed the system prior to the rectification could only view their new averages (CAPS).

The system has since been fine-tuned to prevent the incident from recurring.

Official response from Prof Richardson:

"During a routine check of the Graduate & Academic Planning System (GAPS), a technical glitch was discovered and it was rectified quickly. The system has been fine-tuned to prevent the incident from recurring. In this instance, there was no leak of exam results - grades for individual modules were not revealed and students who accessed the system prior to the rectification could only view their new averages (CAPS). Other faculties have been informed about the incident and the measures to address it, so that they can check their own systems. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the Faculty had experienced a technical glitch of this nature."