A Level results: Fall in number of students accepted on university courses amid warning over grades

The number of pupils accepted onto UK degree courses has fallen 2.6% on the same point last year, UCAS figures show.

Hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are receiving grades in a year when ministers in England are aiming to restore them to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019, which were lower than the last few years.

The Education Secretary has insisted pupils will “still get the same access to university” as those in previous years.

Gillian Keegan also told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the latest UCAS figures showed the UK Government was “right to put the grading system back to normal”.

Amid exams regulator Ofqual’s warnings that this year’s A-level results in England will be lower than last year, it has been suggested that school leavers are facing more competition for university places this year due to a growth in 18-year-olds in the population and international demand.

Further fuelling the fears of disappointment are higher expectations from students who did not sit GCSE exams but instead were awarded teacher-assessed grades amid the pandemic, leading to record-high results in 2021.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “Their aspirations will have been raised because of the results they got at GCSE. And yet what they’re going to see [on Thursday] in most cases is that however their sister or brother did last year getting a string of top grades that is less likely to happen this year.”

Pupils have been receiving their A-Level results and logging on to the UCAS website to find out the status of their university applications from 8am on Thursday, as the organisation released its initial figures.

There has been a drop of 2.6% in the number of UK students who have secured their first choice of university or college when compared to last year.

Of those who have had a decision made regarding their application so far, 79% have gained a place at their first choice, whereas 81% did so in 2022 when exams were reintroduced. In 2019, the last time grading arrangements were the same as this year, the figure stood at 74% on results day.

Overall, 414,940 applicants have gained a place at university or college – down on 425,830 last year (-2.6%) but an increase on 408,960 in 2019 (+1.5%). For UK 18-year-olds, 230,600 have been accepted, a decline from 238,090 in 2022 (-3.1%) but up on 199,370 in 2019 (+15.7%).

UCAS chief executive Clare Marchant told BBC’s Today programme there has been a drop in the number of students getting a place at their first choice university. However, she said this “is what we expected as we return to the normal grading”, adding: “But again significantly up from the 74% back in 2019 and that is what we expected.”

Overall, she said A-level results have been a “very positive picture” and praised students who are sitting external exams for the first time.

Last year, more than a third (36.4%) of UK A-level entries were awarded A or A* grades, compared to 44.8% in 2021 and 38.5% in 2020. In 2019 – the last summer before the pandemic – around one in four (25.4%) UK A-level entries were awarded A or A* grades.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb has said exam results in England need to return to pre-pandemic levels to ensure A-levels carry “weight and credibility” with employers and universities.

But he said “additional protection” has been in place this year where grade boundaries have been altered if senior examiners found national evidence of a drop in standards compared with 2019.

It comes after Covid-19 led to an increase in top A-level and GCSE grades in 2020 and 2021, with results based on teacher assessments instead of exams.

This year’s cohort of students in England have faced some level of disruption to their schooling due to Covid-19, as well as a series of teacher strikes since February this year.

Clearing is available to students who do not meet the conditions of their offer on A-level results day, as well as those who did not receive any offers.

Students who have changed their mind about what or where they wish to study, and also those who have applied outside the normal application window, can also use the process.

Last week, Ucas chief executive Clare Marchant urged students to be “quick off the mark” on A-level results day as said she believed a lot of the highly selective courses would go quickly in clearing.