5th September 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A’level results were published today, with 357,915 students securing a place at university. However, the number of students obtaining the top grades of A or A* has fallen by 0.4%. This is the first time in 20 years that the number of entries being awarded the top grades has not risen, breaking a long term trend. The overall pass rate continues to rise, and now stands at 98%.
The number of students being accepted to universities has also fallen, with early analysis suggesting that this is partly due to a gap between predicted grades and the results obtained by students this year. Acceptances are down 6.95% on last year. Another change in the trend of the past two years is the number of girls receiving the top grade of A*. 8% of boys received an A* this year, compared with 7.9% of girls.
The total number of grades awarded for French and German fell this year by 5.2% and 7.6% respectively. This marks a sharp decrease in the number uptake of foreign languages, an issue which has been flagged up for the past few years. The results have prompted a discussion as to how to encourage British students to take up foreign languages, with many suggesting that studying a foreign language should be compulsory at primary school.