One of the degrees with the spelling error.

A typo on degrees and an overcrowded ceremony have left graduating students fuming.

About 250 certificates handed out at last Tuesday's University of Auckland graduation at the Aotea Centre had the official document's date as the 26th day of "Septmeber" instead of "September".

The error was "hugely disappointing", Will Matthews, the president of the Auckland University Students' Association (AUSA), said.

SUPPLIED Will Matthews, the president of the Auckland University Students' Association, said his girlfriend was upset she couldn't be in the same room as him when he graduated.

"This is something that students carry with them for the rest of their lives. A lot of them put it up on their walls on offices or give them to their parents and it's disappointing that such a basic error has been overlooked."

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The university sprang into action as soon as it was alerted, a spokeswoman said.

CATHERINE REISS/STUFF The University of Auckland is the largest university in New Zealand.

"[We] apologised unreservedly to the students concerned and reprinted the certificates straight away with the correct information.

"The university prints 10,000 certificates every year and this is the first time we have had an error of this type."

Matthews, 23, graduated at the ceremony with an honours degree in politics and international relations.

SUPPLIED Emma Lucas was fuming after having to watch her partner Bradley Holden graduate from an overflow room via video link.

He said the day was also marred by the fact that about 150 ticket-holding guests had to view the ceremony from an overflow room via video link, after a ticket-scanning error allowed them to be displaced by non-ticket-holding gatecrashers.

His own guests – his girlfriend and friend – were "angry and upset" they couldn't be in the same room as him as he graduated, he said.

"It's disappointing for me that they weren't there watching me, but for other people, whose families were coming from all over the place, that would be an enormously disappointing experience both for the students and their families.

"You want to talk to them about it afterwards, about what you looked like and whether you made funny faces as you were going across the stage, and you want them to have taken photos of you ... [this was] just not the same."

However, Matthews said he was satisfied the university did what it could once it realised the mistake.

According to a letter emailed to students from the university's vice-chancellor Stuart McCutcheon, the fact that some guests were "inadvertently excluded" was down to an organisation error.

"At some entry points, tickets were not scanned, so that some people without tickets were allowed into the venue therefore displacing those who had tickets."

McCutcheon apologised for the error and said it was not consistent with protocol.

"We will be looking in more detail about what happened to ensure that we do not have a repeat of this situation."

But the apology was not enough to cover the mistake according to one attendee, who called it "dismissive and not reassuring".

Emma Lucas, who attended the ceremony of her partner, Bradley Holden, was among those who were ushered into the overflow room.

"Although we arrived 45 minutes early, we were turned away from multiple doors as 'all the seats had been allocated'.

"We were then seated in an overflow screening room, which was full of families and whānau who were also allocated tickets but missed out on seats," Lucas said.

"My partner's family travelled from Southland to attend this ceremony, and have incurred travel costs which amount to well over $1000 only to be herded into a small room to watch the graduation on a TV screen."

She said the ceremony in general was poorly organised and uninspiring.

"It is appalling and incredibly disrespectful that proud [ticket-holding] families who have spent considerable time and money supporting their child, partner, parent or friend during their time at university missed out on seeing their loved one graduate in person."

She said that differed greatly from the "expert precision" of her own graduation ceremony at the University of Otago.

The University of Auckland is the largest university in New Zealand and was the highest-ranked university in the country in the 2016/17 QS World University Rankings.