<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000"> Terry and Paul, You are right, of course, about the misuse of "their". Terry, while "their" is strictly a plural, it is considered permissible (if inelegant) to use it where gender cannot be specifed. Many expressions would otherwise become rather cumbersome, with constant repetitions of "his or her" instead. However, in this instance (as you point out, Paul) the email itseld DOES specify the gender, referring to "Mr M*** H*****".  It ought therefore to say "his". This email came from, not a university, but from the administrative body responsible for processing applications to ALL universities! The whole thing is stylistically poor as well as having real errors. Why use the Passive Voice in that first sentence? And in a clumsy way. Best regards, David. P.S. I have the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) </body> </html>