Prospective students who went to school in Wales have been denied clearing spaces at Swansea University because of a funding cap, it is claimed.

Several applicants voiced confusion and anger on social networks after apparently being rejected because of a cap on the number of Welsh students being accepted.

Angry tweets read: “@SwanseaUni can you please explain why my daughter was told she couldn’t apply to you though clearing because she is “Welsh”??”

Another read: “Can anyone explain to me in a tweet why @SwanseaUni are only allowed to take a certain number of Welsh students?”

Further confusion came after the university social media team and clearing team were giving out contradictory information. The social media team asked a clearing applicant to phone in and received a hostile response: “I literally just did. Asked if I had been schooled in Wales, said yes, and they said they’re not taking Welsh students, 5 mins ago.”

The university later clarified that they still had places for Welsh domiciles and claimed only one or two people were affected, but no apology was made for the blunder.

A statement from the university to The Waterfront said: “There is a cap on numbers for Welsh-domiciled students, but this is a HEFCW policy, not something imposed by us. We and other Welsh universities are bound by this.

“The current situation is that there are still some places available for Welsh-domiciled and English-domiciled students. However, as we are continuing to receive enquiries, this situation may well change quickly.”

The university funding body HEFCW, however, denied that there was a cap on the number of Welsh-domiciled students, saying that instead it limits the total fee grant that can be claimed by an institution.

This is to limit the amount of funding paid out by the Welsh Government, which currently pays for two-thirds of the tuition fees of each Welsh-domiciled student, whether they go to university in Wales or England.

The confusion during clearing may have arisen because, after originally setting out its funding arrangements for 2013/2014, HEFCW changed its mind, deciding to move from a cap on student numbers to a maximum fee grant.

The HEFCW document setting out the changes says: “We will now move to an approach which specifies a maximum fee grant income for each institution, rather than a maximum student number. This will allow institutions flexibility in the number of students they recruit.

“However, if recruitment at an institution means that the associated fee grant income would exceed the institutional maximum, institutions will have to either reduce the fees that they are charging to bring the total income of fee grants at their institution back within their maximum or accept a financial penalty.”

Students’ Union President Zahid Raja said: “The Welsh Government doesn’t impose a student number cap, but instead a cap on funding. This in itself forces universities to restrict student numbers, disadvantaging Welsh universities in competing for students with other universities across the rest of the UK. All of these pressures have been exacerbated by the Westminster Government’s decision to treble tuition fees.”

The cost of subsidizing tuition fees during the lifetime of this Welsh Government was forecast by former education minister Leighton Andrews to be £1.044bn for the tuition fee grants and £777m for maintenance grants.

The recent departure of Mr Andrews, who masterminded the Welsh funding scheme, has been interpreted as a sign by Cardiff Vice Chancellor Professor Colin Riordan that the scheme doesn’t work.

He told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Wales show: “I can see that’s a very helpful policy for students that are domiciled in Wales.

“The unfortunate by-product of that is that effectively the Welsh government ends up funding English universities and I’m sure that wasn’t the intention originally of the money that was transferred to Wales from the UK Treasury.”

Prof Riordan claimed that some courses is Wales bring in £1,500 less per student than similar ones in English universities.

He said: “Universities that teach high-cost subjects – things like engineering or areas like chemistry or physics… English Universities currently get about £1,500 per student more than we do.”

(This article corrects inaccuracies in an earlier version)