With A-level marks higher than last year, and more young people getting places at their first-choice universities, 2024 will be counted as a successful round of results. Unlike 2023’s cohort, most of whose GCSE grades were awarded by teachers due to Covid, this year’s school and college leavers had a previous set of exams under their belts when they took their seats in exam halls. England’s exam regulator, Ofqual, believes this stood them in good stead and has ruled out grade inflation as an explanation for improved performance.
Whether they are leaving home to study or not, where to go is a big decision. It can only be a good thing that 82% of applicants have secured a place on their chosen course. Also encouraging is the fact that the 27,600 18-year-olds from the most deprived backgrounds who received an offer is the highest number on record.
As ever, the picture is patchy. The gap between the proportion of private and state school pupils achieving grade C or above is wider than at any time since 2018, and very concerning. Unlike England, Northern Ireland and Wales saw declines in the proportion of A* and A grades (Scottish pupils sit different exams) – although results in Northern Ireland remain higher than in England. While pupils in the north-east slightly shrank the gap with London and the south-east, regional disparities remain large – with London recording both the highest share of top grades (31.3%) and the biggest improvement since before the pandemic.
More detailed breakdowns of the data will enable further comparisons. But there are already concerns about the impact of this year’s raised acceptance rate on universities with lower requirements, which rely on the clearing process for a higher proportion of their intakes. The financial squeeze on universities has incentivised competitive institutions to take on more students. Potentially, this both degrades their experience – by increasing class sizes, raising pressure on staff and so on – and weakens the position of newer universities, which are attended by higher proportions of working-class and ethnic minority students. With smaller numbers entering clearing, the finances at some of these institutions are likely to be even more precarious.
Another source of worry, for colleges more than schools, is the unknown fate of hundreds of level 3 qualifications – taken instead of, or alongside, A-levels by one-third of the cohort (a slightly smaller proportion than studies only A-levels). These are in the process of being reviewed, and the UCU this week rightly called for this process to be extended. This week’s T-level results revealed continued teething troubles for these newer vocational courses, with only 72% of students completing two-year courses and just 0.2% gaining the top grade.
Because nearly all pupils sit GCSEs – unlike the mixed post-16 menu – those results next week will offer a clearer indication of national trends, including inequalities. But one more point worth making about A-levels, and highlighted by the British Academy, is that the number of students combining arts or humanities with science subjects has declined. This is a shame since these areas of learning are all important, and a successful society (and economy) needs generalists, and people equipped to think creatively across boundaries, as well as specialists. Of all Michael Gove’s reforms, the phase-out of curriculum-broadening AS-levels is among the hardest to understand. Hopefully it will soon be reversed. In the meanwhile, pupils and teachers should be congratulated for their achievements.
