Literacy news
A-level pass rate rises for 29th year in a row
18 Aug 2011
Hundreds of young people across the country are celebrating today as the overall A-level pass rate rose for the 29th year in a row, with 97.8 per cent of A-level entries receiving at least an E - up from 97.6 per cent last summer.
8.2 per cent were awarded an A* this year, up 0.1 percentage points from last year, when the elite grade was introduced. This year, 8.2% of boys have achieved an A*, up from 7.9% last year, while girls' performance has dipped from 8.3% to 8.2%.
However, foreign languages continued to decline. Entries for French are down 4.7% on last year and German down 6.9%. The number of entries for A-level Chinese is up on last year.
The scramble for places in clearing has kicked off, with Ucas announcing that 185,000 candidates are chasing 29,000 unfilled places on degree courses.
The number of applicants to UK universities has risen to 673,570, a record high, and a rise of 1.3% on last year. There were around 487,000 undergraduates accepted at UK universities last year, and there are a similar number of places this year.
The A* grade is being used to discriminate between the best candidates at an increased number of universities this year. Oxford is demanding the grade for 15 of its courses, while students applying for some courses at Bristol, Exeter and Sussex have been asked for it.
UCL, Imperial and Warwick have all increased the number of courses requiring the top grade.
Last year, the only universities to demand an A* were Imperial, Cambridge, UCL and Warwick. The standard offer at Cambridge is an A* and two As.
While getting into university has always been competitive, the surge in demand and rising achievement in recent years has led to many qualified candidates failing to win places.
Last year, out of 210,000 unplaced applicants for university, around 113,000 either failed to make the grade or did not receive an offer.
The remaining 97,000 unplaced candidates declined offers or withdrew, according to figures from Ucas.
Read more at the Daily Mail and the Guardian.
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