Students wait for A-level, T-level and BTec results

Hundreds of thousands of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive A-level, T-level and BTec results on Thursday morning.

Another record number of students are expected to find out they have secured a place at their first choice of university.

The cost of going to university has been in the spotlight this year, with mounting pressure on the government to reform student loan repayments and a renewed focus on technical education under Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

But the chief executive of Universities UK, which represents more than 140 vice-chancellors, urged students to not "let politicians make your decision for you".

About 40% of 18-year-olds in England receive A-levels every summer.

Around 250,000 grades for vocational and technical qualifications are also expected to be released to students in England, including BTec National, Cambridge Technical, Cambridge Advanced National and T-level results.

AS-levels, which will count towards students' final A-level results next summer in Wales and Northern Ireland, will also be released.

This year, the pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland rose across the board.

And last year, the proportion of students getting top A-level results reached a record high, with 28.3% of all grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland marked at A* or A.

Around 41% of UK 18-year-olds had applied to university by the end of June this year.

That is a similar proportion to last year, despite increased scrutiny of the long-term cost of university and a renewed focus on technical education.

Vivienne Stern, chief executive of Universities UK, said she was concerned that "people talking [university] down" could "put off" potential students from the least-advantaged backgrounds.

She urged students to "make the right decision for you", adding: "Don't let politicians make your decision for you."

Jo Saxton, chief executive of Ucas, said on Tuesday that she found "kicking higher education incredibly frustrating".

"It's right that the prime minister and secretary of state [in England] are committed to parity [between academic and technical education] but I still think that there are lots and lots and lots of young people the best place for whom would be in a university," she said.

Their comments follow criticism of the student loan repayment system this year - especially Plan 2 loans, which used to be issued in England and are still issued in Wales.

They also come after Burnham announced that pupils in England will be able to study technical subjects in addition to core academic learning from Year 10.

His predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, announced that new V-level qualifications would be an additional vocational option for students from 2027.

Meanwhile, universities continue to struggle with their finances after a long-term freeze in domestic tuition fees and a fall in international student numbers.

Undergraduate tuition fees in England and Wales are rising for a second year running for students starting university in September, reaching £9,790 a year.

But four in ten universities in England are still expected to report a deficit for the 2025-26 financial year.

Most students getting their grades this year were in Year 7 and Year 8 in 2020 and 2021, during the Covid pandemic.

Both years saw spikes in pass rates at GCSE and top grades at A-level, after exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' assessments, and were followed by a phased effort to bring grades back in line with pre-pandemic levels.

This summer England's exams regulator, Ofqual, said it was "closely monitoring" the marking of an A-level maths paper which students and parents claimed was significantly more challenging than in previous years.