Two students say they have missed out on getting any marks in one of the exam papers they took this summer after the University of Law in Birmingham lost their papers.

The students have been told by the university, which charges almost £12,000 for its LPC course, that either they will lose out on the marks or must resit next June. The lost papers were for one part of a two-part exam for a module on international public companies.

Laura Will (pictured), one of the students affected, said she was told the papers had been left for three weeks in a tutor’s pigeon hole and were thrown out by mistake.

Although she still managed to obtain a merit for the module Will said she was confident that it would have been a distinction if her paper had not been lost.

She added that the resit offered ‘will be after I finished the course and a year since I took the module’, and will affect her training contract applications.

‘I could apply for the next intake but my marks are not what they should have been,’ she said.

Max Harris, associate at Baker & McKenzie and chair of the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division, said: ‘If an error has been made, and one or more exam papers have been misplaced by the institution, then the institution must consider a timely solution. Asking the student to wait for a year is simply not good enough.’

A spokesperson from the University of Law said it does not discuss ‘private matters’ about individual students.