’Arseholes’ not aerosols depleting the Ozone

For years scientists thought they knew what caused the hole in the ozone layer, but now it appears they could have been wrong — it may have been "arseholes" that were responsible for the problem.

That was the answer given by one university student in an exam paper, according to his tutor, who suggested that the befuddled scholar may have been thinking of “aerosols”.

And while environmentalists are pondering the state of the Earth’s atmosphere, historians may be questioning all they know about Hitler’s role in the Second World War after one student reliably revealed that the dictator’s role in the conflict “is often overlooked”.

The howlers are among the many bloopers submitted by university lecturers to The Times Higher Education magazine’s annual exam howlers competition.

John Milliken, a lecturer at Ulster University who put forward the “arseholes” claim said the student “probably meant aerosols, but then... maybe not”.

Another student, writing about London’s social scene in the 18th century in a paper on the creation of the Spectator publication in 1711 suggested: “Within these coffeehouses, men from all different parts of the world could interfere with each other.” The gaffe was submitted by Andrew Rudd, lecturer in English literature at the University of Exeter.