Closing summary
That’s it. I hope you have been informed, entertained, but most of all, educated by our coverage of A-level results today. Here are the main points of our coverage.
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The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls
- The overall pass rate (grades A*-E) was 97.6%, down from 97.9% last year. It is the lowest pass rate since 2010, when it was also 97.6%.
- Reforms to A-levels that placed more emphasis on final exams and tightened assessment criteria were this year extended to two-thirds of the total curricula.
- Boys led girls in the top grades for the second year running. The proportion of boys who got A or higher was 26.6%, 0.4 percentage points higher than girls (26.2%).
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Chinese overtook German as the third most popular foreign language, as entry figures showed an overall decline of 5% in the numbers taking foreign languages.
- Maths continued to be the most popular subject at A Level, with the number of entries up 2.5% on last year – up 26.8% compared to 2010
And here are two more graphics that tell more of the story of the relative strengths and weaknesses of boys and girls at A-level.
Computing enjoyed a surge in popularity in 2018 with a 24% increase in the number of students taking the subject across the UK this year compared to last, writes Pamela Duncan, our data journalist.
Although the majority taking the subject are boys (88%) the proportion of girls taking the subject crept up from 9.8% in 2017 to 11.8% this year.
Participation among boys and girls grew in other STEM subjects including chemistry and physics (up 3.4% on the previous year), biology (up 3.1%) and mathematics (up 2.5%).
Conversely, there were drops in participation in geography (down 11.3%), English literature (down 4.6%) and history (down 2.7%).
Northern Ireland outperformed their English counterparts with a higher proportion of students achieving A*-A grades and A*-C grades.
Almost 85% of Northern Irish students sitting their A-levels achieved a C grade or better compared to 76.8% in England and 76.3% in Wales.Northern Ireland outperformed their English counterparts with a higher proportion of students achieving A*-A grades and A*-C grades.
Almost 85% of Northern Irish students sitting their A-levels achieved a C grade or better compared to 76.8% in England and 76.3% in Wales.
Updated
With sweltering temperatures and that distractingly bright sun, this year’s A-level takers faced a hard grind through hours of exams this summer. But for pupils at Taheedul Islam girls’ high school in Blackburn, conditions were particularly difficult, they told Helen Pidd, our north of England editor.
This year’s month of fasting coincided with the exam period, prompting some girls to stay up late feasting after sundown and others to set their alarms for 2.30am for a very early breakfast. “All our exams were in Ramadan and it was so hot,” said Sara Ziglam, 19, who got As in Arabic and psychology and Bs in biology and chemistry: “We were food deprived, pulling all-nighters.”
Updated
Entries to physics A-level rose again this year, despite an overall decline in the number of students taking A-levels, notes the Institute of Physics.
The institute pointed to a 0.3 percentage point rise - I think that’s almost a quantum (not) - year-on-year in the proportion of physics entries, to 4.7% of total A-levels taken. Charles Tracy, the IOP’s head of education, said:
We at the IOP have been working hard on increasing participation by girls. With support from the Department for Education (DfE), we have been running projects in schools, where we work with the whole school, its science teachers and groups of girls.
Whilst there is still work to do, an increase of 8.4% in the number of girls studying physics in England indicates genuine improvements in removing barriers.
Female students made up 22.2% of physics A-level entrants - up from 21.5% in 2017, and to the highest proportion since 2009. Bucking expectations of the revised curriculum, girls slightly outperformed boys, with 30% achieving an A* or A grade compared to 29.5% of of boys. On top of that, 71.5% of females achieved a C or above compared to 69.6% of males.
For all those hardworking pupils out there cradling a results paper with a string of As and A*s, Kieran Yates, the journalist and broadcaster, has a motivational story:
I know it’s cool to be all like lol!! A levels don’t matter!! but I worked really hard did really well and now I’m a struggling freelance journalist with a future of eternal renting and a state pension to look forward to so work really does pay off you guys shoot for your dreams
— kieranyates (@kieran_yates) August 16, 2018
Everything changes, and yet everything stays the same. That’s the message on A-level results in an analysis by Jon Andrews, deputy head of research at the Education Policy Institute, for the Guardian. “Despite the changes, many of the trends that we have seen in recent years persist,” he writes:
Girls continue to outperform boys in most subjects, the notable exceptions being mathematics and chemistry. There are large disparities in entry rates, around four-fifths of entries to physics are from boys, in English literature just one-fifth are.
The upward trend for entries into STEM subjects continues and now account for over a third of all entries. But modern foreign languages continue to slide with French down 8%, and German down 16%.
Even the remarkable rise in the number of unconditional offers from universities - up 40% in the past year - appeared to have had little effect, despite fears that recipients of such offers might decide take it easy on the exam prep.
That may well have happened in some cases, but at a national level the proportion of entrants achieving an A* or A is largely unchanged, although there has been a slight dip in the very highest grade. It does however, raise questions about how our universities admissions system should operate.
If you are plunged into the confusing world of clearing this afternoon, and face making a life-defining choice in a split-second from thousands of courses, then take a look at our Guardian University Guide.
Our guide includes a league table of universities in the UK, plus tables of each of the subject areas, and is aimed specifically at students who are trying to choose a course. It ranks universities on how much students will gain from teaching, whether other students liked the university and the subject, and what their chances are of getting a good job when it’s all over.
We noted below that there remains a disproportionality between boys and girls in science, technology, engineering and maths-related subjects. The Young Women’s Trust has conducted its own analysis of the gender split, showing that there has at least been some increase in the number of girls taking STEM subjects at A-level. Their analysis found:
- The number taking STEM subjects has risen by 5.5 per cent since 2017. There remains a large gender gap, however, in these subjects.
- 21,038 more boys than girls completed physics A Levels, with boys accounting for 78 per cent of those sitting the exams.
- 20,913 more boys than girls completed maths A Levels, with boys making up 61 per cent of those sitting the exams.
Exasol, an analytic database company, looked at Ucas data, and came to similar conclusions. But strikingly they found that the numbers of young women going on to study computing had increased five-fold in five years - a major inroad into a traditionally male field.
The Royal College of Nurses is warning of a looming NHS staffing crisis after fresh falls in the number of students applying to study nursing. Nursing student numbers were down 2% this year. That is roughly in line with the overall fall in cohort numbers (see below), but has contributed to an overall 11% drop since 2016, when the government took away funding for nursing students.
In a statement circulated this afternoon, RCN pointed to the 40,000 nursing vacancies already in England’s healthcare services, and warned that a further fall in the trained workforce could put patient care at risk. In its statement, the royal college said:
In 2015, Ministers sold their reform of nurse student funding as a way to boost student places and increase the number of trainees in England.
Yet today’s UK-wide picture shows a two per cent drop across the four countries, from 21,030 students placed compared to 21,490 in 2017, and an eight per cent drop (from 22,830) since 2016.
There has been a further fall in the number of mature nursing students since funding was removed in 2016, with numbers dropping ten per cent UK wide.
In England the situation is even worse, with a 16 per cent drop (from 7,450 to 6,260) since student funding was removed in 2016.
This could leave specialist areas worst hit by the wider staffing crisis, such as learning disability and mental health nursing, struggling to recruit.
Both these areas rely on students with significant life experience - with fewer mature students due to start in September, today’s figures mean staffing levels could fall further.
The latest figures from Ucas today show that there has been a 2% fall in the number of applications from across the UK accepted on university courses compared with last year, for a total of 354,000 people so far, writes Richard Adams, our education editor.
Ucas said the fall was largely due to a decline in the number of school-leavers in the population. The fall would have been greater but for a record 27.9% of the 18 year-old population in England applying and being accepted to courses through Ucas. In Wales 26.3% of young people will be starting an undergraduate course, also a record.
In Northern Ireland, the entry rate is 28.1%. Scottish students received their exam results last week, and 25.9% of all 18 year olds there have now been accepted.
More than 26,000 EU students have been accepted to study in the UK, an increase compared with this point in 2017, as well as a record 31,510 students from outside the EU, up 4%.
A record 16.1% of people from disadvantaged areas have been accepted, a rise of 0.4 percentage points compared with 2017. However, the gap between the most and least advantaged groups remains the same.
Clare Marchant, the Ucas chief executive, said: “The increase we’re seeing in the proportion of young people placed from disadvantaged backgrounds is excellent news.
‘However, the continuing gap between the most and least advantaged is frustrating, and we’ll keep on working with universities to help them evaluate their outreach activities to impact the most disadvantaged students.”
Boys continue to dominate STEM subjects
Although STEM subjects are becoming more popular, boys continue to dominate science subjects, making up 57% of the students sitting the exams, writes Caelainn Barr, our data projects editor. STEM subjects now account for more than a third of A level entries. Now 2 in 5 subject entries from males and 2 in 7 entries from females are in STEM subjects.
In terms of outcomes females do better in design & technology, physics and biology. Whereas in maths and chemistry males achieve more A* and As compared to females.
The number of students studying computing in the UK increased 23.9% on 2017, with 10,286 students taking the subject. Although males continue to dominate the subject, making up almost nine out of ten entrants, girls got higher marks. Overall 20.1% of girls achieved an A* or A compared in computing, compared to 17.9% of boys.
Updated
Mehedi Khan is just one student who has been in touch with us about his results.
Khan, from Harrow High Sixth Form in west London achieved A*AAB in business studies, computer science, economics, and Bengali and will be going to Queen Mary University of London to study computer science.
He said:
I’m very happy I have got into my first choice university and I’m very grateful to my teachers who have worked so hard to support me.
Yalman Ahadi who will also be studying computer science after achieving A*AA thinks “it’s briliant” that he got in to UCL. Another student Aina Razafimambason said she is looking forward to studying social sciences at the University of Amsterdam after achieving A*AA in maths, chemistry and physics.
If you want to share your reaction and experiences you can get in touch by filling in our form or by sharing with the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056.
Updated
Getting your A-level results? Remember Prince Charles only got a B and a C yet still went to Cambridge and is next in line for the throne. #alevelresults2018
— David Schneider (@davidschneider) August 16, 2018
An 18-year-old GB kayaker achieved four A-levels while training for his sport’s world marathon championships, PA reports.
Luke Shaw sat his exams at Norwich School and gained an A* in maths, A grades in chemistry and politics and a B in further maths.
He has an unconditional offer to the University of Nottingham where he plans to study economics, potentially with Spanish.
Luke, of Bramerton, near Norwich, has just returned from a training camp in Bulgaria and will compete in the junior men’s category for GB at the kayak marathon world championships in Portugal next month.
Standard distances for marathon kayak races are up to 30km, and he said he had to “squeeze in” training alongside his studies.
“I’m hoping to get top 10, but hopefully better than top 10, we’ll see,” he said. “It’s interesting, a lot can happen in a marathon.”
Head of school Phoebe Crane, 18, achieved an A* in biology and A grades in chemistry and maths despite missing weeks of study due to glandular fever.
“It wasn’t the best. I mean I got it at Christmas, Boxing Day, and then I missed my mocks and had to come back quickly, it wasn’t too bad,” she said.
She plans to study chemical engineering at Birmingham University, adding: “It’s such a relief.”
What to do if it's all gone wrong
Amid all the jubilation on A-level results day - the stories of triumph against adversity, the pictures of squealing girls with straigh A*s, the incessant tweets of university acceptance screengrabs - it’s sometimes easy to forget that it doesn’t go well for everyone. If that’s you, then you could do with reading this blog post by a student, Freya Marshall Payne, who missed her grades to go to Oxford, and what she did next.
In the summer of 2015 I was looking forward to reading history at Oxford. I had worked so hard and the future was bright. All I needed was three A grades at A-level.
Then came results day, and everything fell apart. I got a D in one English exam and missed the offer. I cried in public as friends disappeared to celebrate and strangers came to see if I was OK. I suddenly felt I had no control over my life and lost all self-belief.
Read on to find out what Freya did next:
Our graphics team have been hard at work making sense of the statistical tsunami that accompanies A-level results day. Here are the fruits of their labours.
Updated
A-level results day is a cruel trick played on students, according to our columnist, Zoe Williams, who warns that we put youngsters under tremendous pressure yet still claim their grades are being devalued. It’s time we showed solidarity, she says in her latest oeuvre this morning.
It’s A-level results day. You will know this already, because the Telegraph will have some pretty teenagers on its front page, except not in hats or prefixed “Lady”. Or maybe you have an 18-year-old of your own, in which case you will have woken, ashen, from a night plagued by terrors, a clan of hyenas – internationally recognised metaphor for the forces of marketisation – attacking your baby, while you are powerless to help because you’re trying on shoes.
I was in on the ground of grade inflation, taking English the first year of GCSEs, which were apparently much easier than O-levels, the first skid on the slippery slope of declining standards. (I got a C – I draw no conclusions from this bitter experience.) This account of education has a satisfying simplicity: in 1987, marking changed, from grade-allocation quotas – 10% should get an A, 15% a B, and so on – to criteria referencing; like a driving test, each grade required a specific level of performance. Results went up every year for the 20-odd years thereafter. Degree results followed: in the decade between 2004 and 2014, the number of students getting a first went from 11 to 19%. Since human intelligence didn’t seem to have appreciated, and employers were always moaning that new entrants to the workplace couldn’t use photocopiers, it was obvious what had happened. Grades had been debased. Schools, in cahoots with examiners, were somehow gaming the system. Nobody was quite clear on the detail. Was it “teaching to the test”? Was there a slippage in marking rigour? Whatevs. If a quarter of students now got top grades, their achievements could not possibly be equal to those of the previous generation, in which only a tenth did.
Despite a higher than ever rate of university entries (as pointed out by the DfE below), initial figures show that, in absolute terms, fewer students have been accepted on to UK degree courses this year.
Ucas data shows that 411,860 have taken up places so far, down one per cent on the same point last year. It also shows that 353,960 UK students have been accepted on to courses, down two per cent.
The drops come in the wake of a drop in applications to start degrees at UK universities this autumn, fuelled by factors including a fall in the UK’s 18-year-old population.
Chinese overtakes German as third most popular foreign language
More students have sat A-levels in Chinese than in German for the first time this year, as entry figures show an overall decline of 5% in the numbers taking foreign languages.
The number of French exams has fallen by 8% compared with 2017, with a 16.5% decrease in German while Spanish is down by 4%, according to statistics collected by the British Council. Chinese has bucked the trend and seen an 8.6% increase over the past year, and for the first time overtaken German as the third most widely studied modern foreign language at A Level.
Mark Herbert, director of schools and skills at the British Council, called the continuing decline in the number of pupils taking a modern language “a real concern”. He added:
Against this overall downward trend, the increasing popularity of Chinese proves that our young people can be enthused to study languages. Our research shows that Mandarin will be one of the most important languages for the UK’s future prosperity and global standing – but we mustn’t neglect Spanish, French and German which will still be vital post-Brexit.
Learning a foreign language doesn’t just boost job prospects by providing vital skills that employers are looking for, it also helps us understand other cultures and work internationally. We all need to encourage our young people to see the value of languages and embrace them as important subjects to study at A-level and beyond.
The Department for Education has paid tribute to the “next generation of young people succeeding to gain the skills Britain needs”, in a statement pointing out that the university entry rate is the highest ever - and insisting that the reformed A-levels are “better preparing students for studying at university or the workplace”.
Civil service media specialists have picked out the statistics they would like us to pay attention to, which include:
- Maths continues to be the most popular subject at A Level, with the number of entries up 2.5% on last year – up 26.8% compared to 2010;
- Entries into STEM subjects continue to rise, up 3.4% on last year and up 24% since 2010;
- An increase in entries to STEM A Levels by girls, up 5.5% from last year and 26.9% since 2010;
- Over half of the entries were in subjects that open doors to the widest range of courses at Russell Group universities, with the proportion continuing to rise year on year;
- The proportion of entries to art and design, music and modern foreign languages remains broadly stable;
- Yorkshire and the Humber has seen the biggest improvement in entries achieving top grades (A* and A); and
- In the second year of reformed A Levels, the percentage of UK entries awarded the A* grade remains stable at 8.0% this year, compared with 8.1% in 2010 and the overall UK pass rate remains stable at 97.6%, compared to 97.9% last year.
Damian Hinds, the secretary of state for education, said:
We’ve worked to improve education for every child – from their early years through to secondary school and beyond. I also want young people to have wider choice, whether that’s going to university, earning through an apprenticeship or in future taking technical qualifications that match the best in the world.
Today is a significant milestone in the lives of many young people. No matter what path they choose to take next, we are working to make sure it provides them with a world-class education and a passport to an exciting future.
Here are some key figures in this year’s A-level results, which have been picked out for us by the Press Association:
- The overall pass rate (grades A*-E) was 97.6%, down from 97.9% last year. This is the lowest pass rate since 2010, when it was also 97.6%.
- But the proportion of candidates receiving the very highest grades is the highest since 2012. A total of 26.4% entrants scored either an A or A*, up slightly on 26.3% in 2017.
- 8.0% of entrants received an A*, down from 8.3% last year. This is the lowest level since 2013, when it was 7.6%.
- Boys lead girls in the top grades for the second year running. The proportion of boys who got A or higher was 26.6%, 0.4 percentage points higher than girls (26.2%).
- Last year boys led girls by 0.5 percentage points (26.6% boys, 26.1% girls). Before 2017, girls had traditionally led boys, though the gap had been narrowing since 2008.
- The gap between the best-performing boys and girls has fallen slightly. The proportion of boys who got A* was 8.5%, 0.9 percentage points higher than girls (7.6%).
- In 2017 the figures were 8.8% for boys, 7.8% girls - a gap of 1.0 points.
- The most popular subject this year was maths. It was taken by 97,627 entrants, up 2.5% on 2017.
- Biology was the second most popular subject. It was taken by 63,819 entrants, up 3.1% on 2017. The third most popular subject was psychology, taken by 59,708 entrants, a rise of 1.8%.
- General studies saw the biggest drop in candidates of any subject with more than 1,000 entrants. The number fell by more than half (52.1%).
- Computing saw the biggest jump in entrants, rising by 23.9% on 2017.
- There were 811,776 A-levels awarded, down 2% on last year’s total and the lowest number since 2007.
Fewer students get top grades amid struggles with reformed courses
The proportion of students in England gaining C grades or above in A-levels fell back this year, driven by a relatively weaker performance among girls as schools and students continue to grapple with the introduction of new, more intensive exams.
The changes dragged down the overall UK pass rates, as the results in England contrasted with better performances in Wales and Northern Ireland, as more than half a million students across the three nations received their A-level results.
Last year, when fewer of the new, reformed exams were taken, 79% of girls in England achieved grades C or above but this year the proportion fell back to 78.4%, while the proportion of boys achieving the same results fell back by a smaller amount, down 0.3%.
However at the highest grade the gap between boys and girls in England receiving an A or A* narrowed from 0.7% to 0.4% between 2017 and 2018.
In England boys continued to receive more A and A* grades than girls, as 26.4% of boys sitting exams across all subjects received an A grade or higher compared to 26% of girls. But the gap shrank, as the number of boys awarded A* fell back from 8.9% to 8.5%, while the proportion of girls was almost unchanged at 7.6%.
Updated
Stormzy has said he hopes that a scholarship he is offering to help black Cambridge University students pay their tuition fees serves as a reminder to young people from all backgrounds that they have the opportunity to get the best education.
The grime artist was speaking at Harris City Academy Crystal Palace in south London, where A-level students are opening their results. The Stormzy scholarship will pay for tuition fees and provide a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate course, BBC Newsbeat reported.
The rapper said: “If you’re academically brilliant don’t think because you come from a certain community that studying at one of the highest education institutions in the world isn’t possible.”
Stormzy’s scholarship will fund two students starting this year, and two more in 2019.
Get in touch with the Guardian
We’d like to hear how A-level results day has been for you. Have reforms meant you’ve missed out on the university of your dreams, or were you pleasantly surprised? Did the high cost of university put you off, or are you pursuing an apprenticeship or job instead?
You can share your pictures, videos and stories by filling in our form or contacting the Guardian via WhatsApp by adding the contact +44(0)7867825056. We’ll feature some of your submissions in our live blog. You can read terms of service here.
Emotions are running high today, as students find out whether their hard work - or lack of it - will be reflected in their A-level grades. But looking further ahead, only half of school leavers feel optimistic about finding a job they love, according to a poll.
The research by the Chartered Institute of Marketing reveals that 17-19 year olds have a gloomy outlook about today’s job market, with just 53% optimistic about landing a job that they actually want to do.
Others believe difficulty achieving the right qualifications (34%), and difficulty developing the right skills (27%) will prevent them from finding their dream job.
Among other findings:
- A third (29%) of school leavers feel pessimistic about their career prospects, with young people living in London (49%) revealed as the most pessimistic in the UK.
- Students opting to go to University are more optimistic (60%) about their job options compared to those not going to University (47%).
- The research shows a gender split, with women more pessimistic (32%) about their job prospects than men (21%).
You won’t be surprised to hear that Chris Daly, chief executive of CIM, recommends that these youngsters try their hand at a job in his industry. He said:
It’s worrying that so many young people feel pessimistic about the job market - and that in many cases, what they are most concerned about is having the right skills or qualifications to find a job they love.
Across all professions, access to training should be a business requirement rather than a nice-to-have.
Marketing is a good example of a sector that has clear training and progression opportunities, not only for those looking to enter the job market for the first time, but at every stage to help support learning and development.
Despite speculation that boys might do comparatively better this year, thanks to the reformed A-levels’ emphasis on final exams, it’s still the girls who are hogging the limelight with clean sweeps of top grades. In this video from Manchester we see a trio of high achievers from Rochdale sixth form college getting their grades.
Updated
Here are the first choreographed results day celebration pictures, just in from Brighton College, a public school in East Sussex. As you can see, the ladies in Brighton apparently have much to celebrate - and one would hope so after an education costing an eye-watering £13,190 a term for full-boarding home and EU students!
Exams are not even out yet, but there will doubtless be some young among you who are expecting to have failed to meet the demands of your conditional university offers.
So what do you do if you haven’t got the grades? You could start by taking a look at this clearing guide produced by the University of Sussex (my alma mater, incidentally).
Here is an excerpt:
What to do if you don’t get the A-level results you need...
- Don’t panic. Many people will be in the same boat as you and you still have loads of options.
- Check in with your first-choice university. If you’ve only just missed your grades, they may still take you. Look on UCAS Track to see what, if any, decision they have made.
- Do the same for your insurance-choice university.
- Hit the phones. If you check UCAS Track and there is still no decision, call the university concerned to find out what is happening. They will have specially trained people waiting to take your call. If they haven’t decided, ask them when they will. (PS - don’t be tempted to turn up in person. It will waste your time, stress you out and won’t change anything anyway!).
- Call your insurance choice while you are waiting. You’ll feel better if you know you have a university place in the bag, even if it is not your first choice.
Read more on the University of Sussex website.
The education secretary, Damian Hinds, has defended the government’s A-level course reforms - sort of.
“There’s a lot more to education, a lot more to achievement than exams alone,” Hinds told the Today programme on Radio 4 - in comments that will perhaps have little resonance with those awaiting their results this morning. “Exams do play an important role of course in recording students achievements, their abilities and help them to move on to the next stage.”
As we’ve seen, students and teachers have roundly criticised the reformed courses - which now make up two-thirds of A-level curricula - as placing too much pressure on students to perform in their final exam, and for including too much new material with too little support. But Hinds backed the changes.
With A-level reform we worked very closely with universities to make sure that in redesigning them they were made more appropriate, better preparing young people to moving on to the next stage, which of course for very many of them will be going on to university.
Having exams at the end of the two years means that it is possible to consider the subject as a whole, to bring all the different parts of it, to synthesise all the different parts of the subject in a way which is a little closer actually to undergraduate study.
Hinds also addressed the issue of unconditional offers, which have seen a big rise in numbers this year, prompting some observers to warn that students holding one could take their feet of the gas when it came to studying for their A-level exams.
Unconditional offers have always been in the system, and they have a legitimate role to play in some subjects - in art, for example, where it’s very commonplace to use unconditional offers. ]
But there has been this very sharp growth and, yeah, I’m concerned about that. Whenever you see an uptick statistic like that, that’s something that needs attention. The office for students is looking at this and they will come back with their findings and recommendations.
My concern is if - and the extent to which - unconditional offers might erode the entry requirements and therefore the confidence in the system.
Updated
Young 'sceptical about university', says poll
Young people are becoming more sceptical about the benefits of going to university, despite a large majority saying they want to carry on to higher education, research suggests.
The findings coincide with the publication on Thursday of A-level and BTec level three grades for hundreds of thousands of sixth formers. University admissions offices were braced for a flood of enquiries after more than 600,000 candidates applied though the Ucas process this year.
Thanks to a rapid expansion in the number of university places available in recent years and a slight fall in the number of applicants overall, a significant number of courses still have places available. More than 26,000 places are on offer through the clearing system at universities in England alone, including some belonging to the Russell group of leading research institutions, according to the Press Association.
The new research, carried out by Ipsos Mori for the Sutton Trust, polled 2,300 English and Welsh pupils aged 11 to 16.
It found that 75%agreed it was “important” to go to university, down from 86% in 2013.
More than three-quarters of those surveyed said they were likely to go to university, although the number of those who said they were “very likely” to go slipped from 38% in 2013 to 32% this year.
One of this summer’s big exam controversies was the leak of an A-level maths paper. Five students were disqualified and a further 30 are being investigated by the exam board Edexcel over the leak in June - just before students sat the paper.
Pearson UK, owner of Edexcel, has alleged that one person was the source of the leaked paper, which was offered for sale to students through two social media applications. Students reported seeing the paper for sale at £200, with sellers said to be offering the first question for free to prove they had it.
A police investigation was launched, and the exam board conducted its own inquiry, which identified “identified one individual as the source of the breach, who has been debarred from any involvement with Pearson examinations for life”.
In an update to schools and colleges on Monday, Derek Richardson, the vice president and senior responsible officer at Pearson UK, added: “We have disqualified five students and are currently investigating a further 30 with regards to their involvement.
“Their results will be withheld until these investigations are completed. We are continuing to support the police with their ongoing investigation.”
A senior headteacher has attacked the pace and quality of the Government’s A-level reforms, arguing that it has put educators under “immense pressure”.
Rachael Warwick, executive headteacher of Didcot Girls’ School in Oxfordshire, said the changes were seen as unnecessary by many teachers and the speed at which they had been brought in made them “difficult” to implement.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today that teachers had been left trying to plan courses and writing textbooks before specifications had been finalised, as well as coping with a lack of past papers to guide exam preparations. She said:
It has put schools and colleges under immense pressure.
Personally I question why that was done and certainly the speed and quality of implementation had a lot to be desired.
We would certainly expect in the future a more measured approach to curriculum reform from the Government, and a period of stability.”
There will be jittery teenagers - and teachers - throughout the country today as they roll out of bed ahead of getting their A-level results.
Almost 290,000 have taken A-levels this year, and gnawing at the pit of many of their stomachs will be worries over whether reforms to subjects have made them tougher or merely “refreshed”, as Ofqual likes to say, “to better prepare students for university”. Twelve subjects have been reformed this year, on top of 13 last year - in total around two-thirds of A-level courses.
Many are resentful at being used as guinea pigs for the new qualifications, with claims that increased pressure is taking its toll on students, with fewer resources available covering the new content, as well as teachers, who could find themselves teaching a lesson they’d only taught themselves days earlier. This tweet by Tessa Milligan is the beginning of a thread in which she explains the issues.
This #alevelresultsday2018 can we actually talk about what was left unsaid last year - the impact that Gove’s new exams have on the mental health of students and teachers?
— tessa milligan (@tessmillsy) August 15, 2018
Ofqual has insisted its “comparable outcomes” process, which links grade proportions to the year-groups’ GCSE results two years’ previously, will ensure there is no distortion in grades. Sally Collier, chief regulator, downplayed the impact of the new curricula. “The new qualifications remain of the same high standard as the ones they replaced and have been updated with input from universities,” she said. “They have more effective assessment arrangements and also allow additional time for study.”
Nevertheless, the exam overhaul is thought likely to benefit boys, who appear to do better under stressful exam environments, compared with than girls, who in the past did better from longer periods of assessment. We will be watching closely to see whether there is a shift in the proportions of top grades awarded.
Schools and teachers are also worried about a rise in the numbers of unconditional places offered by universities. According to Ucas, nearly one in four 18-year-olds applying from England, Wales and Northern Ireland have received an unconditional offer – meaning they can accept an undergraduate place without meeting the A-level or BTech grades predicted by their teachers.
There is little understanding of the effect this might have, although a previous Ucas paper suggested students holding unconditional offers may have underperformed against their expected entry grades.
Frustrating that some people who did fak all for there A levels will have a lie in next week, with there unconditionals and some of us will be up at 6 finding out whether all this hard work meant anything
— Rach Griffin (@rachgriffin_) August 7, 2018
ngl I know having an unconditional offer is easy,but I still had to work so bloody hard to get it and I’m still going to be so disappointed if i’ve done bad in my exams. I know I’m going to uni either way but it doesn’t take away the fact that alevels ruined my life lol
— seanagh (@seanagh_melvin) August 8, 2018
