Lecturer Dave Harrison entered a number of test papers from local students to the Times Higher Education, which publishes an annual report highlighting the more confused thoughts of some of Britain's brightest young minds.

One student, when asked why the railways were important to 19th century Britain, claimed the railways were invented to take the weight off the motorways.

Another claimed railways were invented to transport Irish emigrants from Dublin to Liverpool.

Asked to 'outline the importance of the four Noble Truths to the Buddhist faith', one student wrote the baffling response: "Nirvana cannot be described because there are no words in existence for doing so. Not non-existence either, it is beyond the very ideas of existing and not existing."

The exam howlers were made up to five years by students on an Access to Higher Education course.

A spokesman for the college defended the decision to submit the answers to the magazine, which poked fun at students from across the country.

He said: "This was a light hearted competition that illustrated some of the submissions that academic staff, across the country, receive from their students. We hope that anybody reading the article in the Times Higher Education supplement would view it from this perspective."

Phil Baty, deputy editor of the Times Higher Education, said: "This is simply meant to be a fun snapshot of what students come out with when under pressure, although many of our readers would agree that academic standards of literacy have got a lot worse and there is research suggesting it as well."