Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Let’s look in a bit more detail about the differences in top grades between England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The proportion of A-levels marked at A* and A was:

• 26.5% in England, down from 35.9% in 2022
• 34% in Wales, down from 40.9%
• 37.5% in Northern Ireland, down from 44%

The proportion of top grades in England this year is about 1.3 percentage points higher than it was in 2019.

In Wales and Northern Ireland, it is around seven to eight percentage points higher.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Top A-level results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have fallen for a second year running – with 27.2% of all grades marked at A* or A.

That’s more or less back where it was in 2019 - the last year of exams before Covid - when it was 25.4%.

It is a substantial fall from recent years - it was 36.4% in 2022 and 44.8% in 2021.

The fall in top grades will mean disappointment for some students, but it’s got nothing to do with students’ individual performance.

It’s part of a plan to bring grades back down in line with pre-pandemic levels, after sharp rises in 2020 and 2021 when exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers’ assessments.

But the drop is not evenly spread. It is much steeper in England, where grades were due to be brought back in line with 2019 today.

In Wales and Northern Ireland, grades were always meant to be a bit higher this year.

Overall, there are 73,008 fewer top grades compared to 2022, but 31,834 more than in 2019.

Image source, LinkedIn

While loads of you will be hoping your grades are enough for your first choice university today, many will be looking for a job instead.

And new research from LinkedIn suggests there was a 90% increase in the share of UK job postings not requiring a degree last year.

Josh Graff, a managing director there, told BBC 5 Live’s Wake Up to Money programme they're "seeing a shift take place" towards hiring based on skills, rather than just relying on education.

"Eighty percent of the jobs at IBM now don't require a university degree - on top of that they have a great apprenticeship program," he says.

"The likes of Kellogg's recently announced that they no longer mandate university degrees as well, so this is very much becoming the norm."

Former footballer Gary Neville said the current examination system is “prehistoric” and grading should be more focused on coursework.

“In ten years’ time no employer is going to look at your GCSE and A-level results – they’re going to look at the experience that you’ve had in the workplace," he told BBC Breakfast.

Christina McSorley
Education reporter

Jessica, from Leeds, has just finished her T-level in Health, and is hoping to become a nurse.

She is weighing up whether to do an apprenticeship or go to university.

Studying nursing at university will take three years, Jessica says, which is quicker than a four- or five-year apprenticeship - but the benefit of the apprenticeship is that she would earn at the same time as learning.

Whatever the decision, which she’ll make today, Jessica plans to stay at home to save on accommodation costs.

“They both need the same entry requirements. I just want to make sure it’s the right decision for me”, she says.

• What are apprenticeships and how do I choose a good one?
• How much does university cost and does it increase earnings?

Image source, X/Twitter

Every year there's one thing that's as certain as seeing pictures of students nervously opening envelopes... a post from Jeremy Clarkson about his grades being low.

The TV presenter has previously tweeted about building a large house in the Cotswolds, driving a Bentley and holidaying on a superyacht.

His 2023 offering?

"It’s not the end of the world if your A-level results aren’t what you’d hoped for. I got a C and 2 Us and here I am today with my own brewery," he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Becky Padington
Reporting from Nelson and Colne College, Lancashire

You might remember we spoke to student Humaira earlier, who was one of the first through the door at Nelson and Colne College this morning waiting anxiously for her grades.

She needed A* A A to get her first choice place at the University of Manchester to study law.

A delighted Humaira has just come back to tell us she got in - and is planning on celebrating by heading home for a "big nap".

Feeling "relieved and happy", she says first she is going to see her friends and make sure she's supporting them as they get their results too.

Gareth Bryer
Reporting from South East Wales

Staff at Coleg Gwent’s Ebbw Vale campus have put on a Farewell Festival this morning.

Students heading there to pick up their results are being treated to croissants and mocktails, as well as fairground stalls.

Over 2,000 students are getting their results across the college’s five campuses in South East Wales.

Image source, .

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Education Secretary Gillian Keegan says this year's A-levels have been graded fairly, despite students having missed out on taking their GCSEs because of the Covid pandemic.

"We've made sure that they had some additional things put into the system," Keegan told BBC Breakfast.

Students received "some additional aide memoires for certain subjects".

"It's a very sophisticated system and we have very senior examiners making sure that they calibrate to those 2019 results," she says.

Asked about the different systems in Wales and Northern Ireland, Keegan says: "We had some more adjustments last year, which is pretty much where the Welsh and Irish are this year. So they're about a year behind."

Becky Padington
Reporting from Nelson and Colne College

Students across the UK are finding out how they fared in their A-levels.

At Nelson and Colne College in Lancashire, there is a flurry of excitement as pupils read through their grades.

We've just received more data from Ucas. Here's a broad picture of how students across the UK fared:

• 79% have secured their first choice for university (81% last year, 74% in 2019)
• 12% have been placed at their insurance choice (11% last year, 14% in 2019)
• The remaining 9% are now in clearing and have a choice of nearly 29,000 courses and 8,000 apprenticeships

Overall, 414,940 applicants have gained a place at university or college. Of those, 230,600 are UK 18-year-olds.

Clare Marchant, chief executive of Ucas, has joined us on Radio 4 to discuss university placements.

The number of placements offered are down 3% on last year, Marchant says, but up 15% on 2019.

The percentage of 18-year-olds who have got a placement at their first choice of university is 79% across the UK.

Marchant says "overall, this is a very positive picture".

Individual results are now being released to students by schools and colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

We’ll bring you some immediate reaction, as well as the overall picture of results later this morning.

The wait is almost over for students getting their Level 3 results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

A-level grades in England will fall roughly back to what they were in 2019, after a series of years of inflated grades during and immediately after the pandemic.

Wales and Northern Ireland will still see inflated grades this year.

Stick with us to see how everyone’s got on.

Becky Padington
Reporting from Nelson and Colne college, Lancashire

Humaira, one of the first students to arrive at Nelson and Colne college this morning is anxiously waiting for her results.

Humaira said she needs an A* A A to get into her first choice university, the University of Manchester, to study law.

“I’ve been feeling really nervous - there’s been a lot of anxious nights. I barely got any sleep last night and I feel like a lot of people are experiencing that as well,” she says.

“I’m really hoping that these A-Levels will be worth it and I can meet those grades.”

Bethan Lewis
BBC Wales Family & Education Correspondent

We're expecting grades across the UK to fall again this year - in England back to 2019 levels - but in Wales and Northern Ireland marks should be more generous to account for Covid disruption.

Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute, says England has "probably got it wrong this time" by trying to get back to normal "too quickly".

“We can expect more grade deflation in England than elsewhere in the UK,” he says.

“This particular cohort who left school this summer, they were the cohort that got the highest GCSE results ever.

"Now in England they’re going to get the lowest A-level results in a long time. Wales and Scotland may have some lessons there for England.”

The Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation (Ofqual) says colleges and universities are used to handling admissions for students from different countries and regions already, and that it's taken into account when making offers.

The Association of School and College Leaders, meanwhile, says the government needs to make employers aware that different year groups have been graded differently.

Image source, Getty Images

Yes. The grade boundary is the minimum number of marks that you need in order to reach each grade.

This year exam boards in England have been “slightly” more lenient than before the pandemic when deciding the grade boundaries.

This is so that students who performed less well than expected in their exams are protected, to take into account the disruption to education caused by Covid.

In Wales, grades have been awarded “more generously” than before the pandemic and in Northern Ireland, the examiners have also taken Covid disruption into account.

In Scotland, where results were given out last week, the Scottish Qualifications Authority said its grading for Highers was “sensitive” because of the continuing impact of the pandemic.

We've just heard from Professor Malcolm Press, the Vice Chancellor of Manchester Metropolitan University.

The grade boundary is expected to be closer to pre-pandemic levels this year, but Prof Press says students shouldn't be too worried about missing out.

"If you look back historically, four out of five 18-year-olds have always got their first place, and typically every qualified student who has gone through clearing has found a university to suit them," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Prof Press's advice to those young people who are disappointed with the grades they receive today is to remain calm and speak to their prospective university.

"There will be many instances where universities will perhaps allow grades to slip slightly," he says.

"Be positive, be optimistic, be confident - this is a day for celebration."

Image source, Getty Images

This morning, you will either be heading into school to collect your results in person or logging in online.

For those of you who have applied to university or a higher education college course, Ucas, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, external, will start updating its systems very shortly (08:00) but it can take several hours.

This year 319,570 18-year-olds applied to university , external- the second highest number on record.

There has also been an uplift in university offers, Ucas says.