Well, "their" and "them" and "they" refer to more than one person, yet the subject of the sentence is the "applicant", singular. Given that the university has the individual's name and title, "Mr.", it is clearly aware of the person's gender, ergo it is a simple matter to say "his application", "contact him", and "if he has provided". <div>
<br></div><div>Certainly "his or her", "he or she", etc. is an awkward construct, but it's not even necessary here, or in many other cases where "they" (etc.) are used instead.<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Dec 5, 2012 at 4:24 PM, David Boyce <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:David@piano.plus.com" target="_blank">David@piano.plus.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<font face="Arial">This evening I have written and submitted a
reference for a former student of mine who is applying to
university. In the UK, such applications are processed by a body
called UCAS; the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.<br>
<br>
I duly submitted the reference online, and a few moments later,
received an email confirmation.<br>
<br>
Here is the text of the beginning of the email:<br>
<br>
</font><br>
Dear David Boyce<br>
<br>
Your reference for Mr M*** H***** has now been received by us. The
applicant will now be able to complete and send their application
into us, we will contact them by email if they have provided a
verified email address.<br>
<br>
<font face="Arial">Now, folks, I am not a pedant in matters
linguistic. I appreciate that languages constantly change and
evolve. But there is fascinating change and evolution, and there
is slovenliness. The secodn sentence of the above contains two
annoying illiteracies; "into" should of course be "in to" (and the
"in" is redundant in any case) and a Comma Splice has been used
instead of a semicolon after "us".<br>
<br>
The body who sent that email to me are responsible for almost all
of the admissions to Higher Education institutions</font> in the
UK.<font face="Arial"> If they are so illiterate in so short a
communication, what are we to expect in general?<br>
<br>
Best regards,<br>
<br>
David.</font><br>
<br>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>