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Coventry University has lost more than ?1 million of European funding because of a bureaucratic blunder.

Three senior staff in the engineering school are facing disciplinary charges after a routine check discovered problems with nine applications for European funds, including some under the European Social Fund. One of the staff has been suspended.

Cyrrhian MacRae, director of corporate affairs, said: "Documents were not sufficiently in order for us to be able to claim the grant income we had anticipated claiming."

Ms MacRae said students would not be affected by the loss of the money, which is understood to have been earmarked for training and consultancy with local small businesses, but it will hit the business support unit of the school.

Ms MacRae added: "We would like to make it clear that there is no evidence of any personal gain by any one of these people. It is a question of badly maintained paperwork."