KEY POINTS:
It might have a beautiful campus in a reputable city - but one of our top universities doesn't know basic grammar.
An advertising campaign for the University of Canterbury splashed around Auckland bus stops has an embarrassing apostrophe crime.
A rogue apostrophe has left the entire marketing sentence nonsensical. The billboard contains a quote from a current university commerce student: "I chose UC because of it's beautiful campus and city's reputation."
There should be no apostrophe in the word "its".
The university's acting vice-chancellor, Ian Town, said he was unaware of the mistake and who was responsible.
But he took it in good humour, describing it as the "curse of the apostrophe" before adding "university, the pinnacle of high education".
He felt it would not reduce the attractiveness of the university in the eyes of potential students, given their good reputation in subjects such as information and communications technology and engineering.
This is not the first time a university has been caught out with bad grammar.
Several years ago several thousand copies of the University of Auckland calendar went out with the incorrect spelling of calendar.
* Send us some of the apostrophe clangers you've spotted in your area. anna.rushworth@heraldonsunday.co.nz
