Scandal reveals a royal was accepted to uni after being rejected.

Princess Eugenie was initially rejected by Newcastle University and then given a place because of who she was, it was claimed.

Her application was allegedly dismissed as ‘not good enough’ by an admissions officer who hadn’t realised the applicant was a member of the royal family.

When the ‘horrified’ University authorities realised what had happened they offered the Duke and Duchess of York’s daughter a place on an alternative degree course.

The allegations were made by Dr Martin Farr, a senior history lecturer at Newcastle University, in a speech to the anti-monarchist campaign group Republic’s annual convention in the city.

Eugenie ended up doing a combined BA honours degree in English literature, history of art and politics at Newcastle and graduated at the end of her three-year course in 2012 with a 2:1. The comments by Dr Farr imply that she was given special treatment to get her into the university for PR purposes.

Speaking to an audience in favour of abolishing the monarchy, Dr Farr said his information had come from a colleague who he didn’t name.

He said the royal VIP was rejected for a degree in English literature before being found a place on the apparently less competitive combined degree when her identity came to light.

Dr Farr said: ‘We had at Newcastle University one of the Queen’s granddaughters, Princess Eugenie.

‘And a friend of mine who is Italian was the admissions officer for BA English literature and received one application for the undergraduate degree that was not good enough and so discarded it.’

• This article was first published on dailymail.co.uk and is republished here with permission.