University of the Witwatersrand vice-chancellor Adam Habib has denied claims that a white final-year medical student received special treatment by being pushed through despite failing a six-week integrated primary care course.

A group of angry students this week claimed that 27 black students in the same predicament had not been offered the same concession.

But Habib said the white student had in fact achieved the second-highest mark, but that an “administrative error” meant her mark had been incorrectly transcribed.

“She was not given a privilege. She passed; they [the others] failed,” he told the Sunday Times.