A-level results day: Top grades drop to lowest proportion in more than decade as numbers going to university fall

Teenagers across the country received marks amid major exam reforms

Pupils will receive their A-level results on August 15

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers received their A-level results across the country amid major exam reforms.

The number of students who secured top A-level grades at A-level dropped to its lowest point in 12 years.

Grades were awarded in the first 13 reformed A-level subjects in England in 2017, with a further 12 reformed subjects last summer. Students received grades in a further 19 subjects on Thursday.

See below how we covered A-level results day

The new A-levels have less coursework and exams at the end of two years - and AS levels no longer count towards the A-level grade as part of the reforms.

Girls outperformed boys at the top grades this year despite predictions that the linear structure of the new qualifications would favour boys.

Females also overtook boys in A-level entries in science for first time in history following a push to diversify uptake.

Key Points

• Hundreds of thousands of students opened their A-level results 
• A-level top grades (A* and A) hit a 12-year low amid major exam reforms
• Girls overtook boys in A-level entries in science for first time in history
• Fewer students were accepted on to UK degree courses this year, figures show
• Girls outperformed boys at top grades for first time in three years

[15 August 2019 13:34 · Eleanor Busby]

Growing student interest in climate change, Brexit and US politics has led to more students taking up humanities subjects. 

The number of A-level entries to political studies has risen by 9.8 per cent in a year to 19,729 entries.

Meanwhile, the number of entries to geography have also increased by 4.2 per cent on last year to 34,960 entries.

Students sitting A-level exams this year made their choices after the Brexit referendum and US presidential election. 

A growing interest in climate change among the younger generation may also have had an impact on uptake, exam boards say. 

Derek Richardson, senior responsible officer for exams at Pearson, which runs exam board Edexcel, said: “Students are perhaps choosing subjects that they feel will be the most interesting and relevant to them in their futures."

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "It's great to see more young people taking an interest in politics, taking an interest in change.

"That generation feels like they're global citizens, they want to stay connected with the world."

[15 August 2019 13:42 · Eleanor Busby]

The number of students accepted on to undergraduate nursing courses in England is "nowhere near" the level needed to meet demand, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.

Admissions figures show the number accepted on to courses in 2019 rose by 4 per cent from last year, but is still less than 2016.

That year a bursary that covered the cost of tuition fees and living costs while on placement was removed, in reforms intended to boost places and increase the number of nursing students in England.

But the RCN said this had failed, with 1,360 fewer people accepted on to undergraduate nursing degree courses than in 2016.

[15 August 2019 14:00 · Eleanor Busby]

School leaders and exam boards have suggested a rise in female role models in science could be behind the gender switch in the subject.

National figures released this morning show girls have overtaken boys in A-level science entries for the first time,

It follows a major push to encourage girls to take up science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) subjects in school. 

Jill Duffy, chief executive of OCR exam board, said more visibility of positive female role models in science could have inspired more girls to take up the subjects at A-level.

She said: "If you look at the important women in science often women have been very hidden in the past.

"If you look at Rosamund Franklin who was very instrumental in DNA work, she wasn’t the one who got all the credit for it. So actually making things like that more obvious. Making it clear there are realistic role models."

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: "As a head you were always looking to try and appoint a female physics or chemistry teacher in particular because you knew how that would resonate, and you would bring back students who had gone to university and studied chemistry so that females were seeing that."

Here is the story on the historic first: 

[15 August 2019 14:15 · Eleanor Busby]

The Royal Society, Britain's independent scientific academy​, hailed the rise in the proportion of students taking up science subjects.

But it has also raised the alarm over the declining uptake of English and arts subjects at A-level. 

Professor Tom McLeish, chair of the Royal Society education committee, said: "The Society is very concerned about the decline in some arts and humanities subjects, particularly English.

"The continued fall in AS Level entries to under 200,000 compared to 1.3 million before the reforms was expected, however the Society is concerned this is contributing to further narrowing of students’ choices and learning.

“We urgently need a conversation at the highest levels about a broader curriculum fit for the future.”