Top A-level grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland rose for a third consecutive year in 2025, with 28.5% of grades awarded at A* or A, up from 28.3% the previous year, while a record number of UK 18-year-olds were accepted into university, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas).
A-level top grades rise for third year as record number of UK 18-year-olds enter university
Top A-level grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland rose for a third consecutive year in 2025, with 28.5% of grades awarded at A* or A, up from 28.3% the previous year, while a record number of UK 18-year-olds were accepted into university, according to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas).
The rise in top grades remains well below the levels recorded in 2020 and 2021, when in-person exams were cancelled and results were based on teacher assessments. Grading in England returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, prompting a significant fall in top grades, with Wales and Northern Ireland following in 2024. The proportion of A* and A grades has edged upward since that 2023 drop. By nation, the A* and A share in 2025 was 28.3% in England, up from 28.2%; 29.6% in Wales, up from 29.5%; and 30.7% in Northern Ireland, up from 30.3%.
Ucas reported the steepest growth in acceptances at what it terms 'higher tariff' universities — the most selective institutions, including those in the Russell Group — which took on 5.5% more UK 18-year-olds than the previous year. Despite the record raw number of 18-year-olds accepted into their first-choice institution, the percentage of 18-year-old offer-holders achieving their first choice fell from 82% to 79%, attributed in part to a larger 18-year-old population. Four in ten universities in England are expected to report a financial deficit in 2025-26, according to the source, squeezed by a long-term freeze on domestic tuition fees and a decline in international student numbers.
T-level results were released alongside A-levels, with more than 19,600 students receiving grades across 21 subjects in England this year, up from 11,900 students across 18 subjects in 2024. The pass rate rose from 91.4% on last year's provisional figures to 92.6%, and the share of students achieving a merit or above grew from 65.3% to 68.9%. Around 77% of students who began their T-level in 2024 and were expected to complete it this year received results, meaning the dropout rate remains notable. Total vocational and technical qualification grades released stood at around 300,000, compared with more than 800,000 A-level grades issued to 18-year-olds alone.
The gap between the highest- and lowest-performing regions in England widened again. London recorded 32.7% of A-level grades at A* or A, while the North East and the East Midlands each recorded 23.1%, a 9.6 percentage point gap, up from 9.2 percentage points the previous year and described in the source as the largest on record since the A* grade was introduced in 2010. The gap between London and every other region also widened year-on-year.
On gender, 28.9% of all grades awarded to boys were A* or A, compared with 28% of grades awarded to girls — a gap that widened after boys first overtook girls on this measure in 2024, reversing a trend that had held since 2018. In absolute terms, girls received 137,000 A* and A grades against 120,900 for boys, reflecting the larger number of girls sitting A-levels. Across the broader A* to C range, 79.8% of girls' grades fell in that band compared with 76.8% of boys'.
- The source does not state the total number of students who received A-level grades across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2025.
- The source does not state the total number of UK 18-year-olds accepted into university in 2025, only that the figure is a record.
- The source does not specify which individual universities or how many are still advertising courses in Clearing.
- The source does not state the number of students who started T-levels in 2024 but did not receive results this year, only the 77% completion figure.
- The source does not provide government or Department for Education comment on the regional attainment gap or the A-level results overall.
- The source does not state the basis on which the 2025 figures for England are compared — whether provisional or final — given that last year's T-level pass rate is described as provisional.