Cachella Smith

Image source, PA Media

A record number of 18-year-olds have been finding out they have secured a place at their first choice of university this morning as A-Level, T-Level and BTec results are released.

We've been speaking to students across the country who have told us they're taking the next steps towards their dreams of working in Formula 1, studying medicine or becoming a solicitor.

Here's what you need to know:

• Almost 229,000 18-year-olds will find out today they have been accepted into their first choice for university while more than 31,000 have secured a place at their insurance choice
• That's a record in terms of raw numbers going to their first choice - but as our education correspondent reports there has been a rise in the number of 18-year-olds in the UK
• Meanwhile, the proportion of A-level grades marked A* or A have risen across the board at 28.3% in England, 29.6% in Wales and 30.7% in Northern Ireland
• Triplets Scarlett, Tabby and Grace all for into their first choice university and are excited to visit each other, while Emily in Hartlepool says despite feeling sick this morning, her hard work has paid off

• Many have told us they found the lead-up to today nerve-wracking, but 18-year-old Bobi Jones hasn't had time to worry having been too busy tackling wildfires as an on-call firefighter

If you didn't get the results you were hoping for or you're unsure on next steps, we're on hand to answer your questions.

BBC Newsbeat
Jasmine Sandhar, reporting from Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall

Opening your results in front of friends and family is brave enough, but what about doing it with a mic and camera pointed at you?

BBC Newsbeat has found some students who were up to the task at Truro and Penwith College in Cornwall.

There was a beaming smile on Nick Basher’s face as the 19-year-old realised he’d achieved a merit in his Digital Production Design and Development T-level.

“I’ve been waiting a couple of months so there's been a little bit of nerves,” he says.

But opening the envelope wasn’t as stressful as it could’ve been, as he’s recently secured a full-time job at a solicitors working on their IT.

“I am hoping to continue that within the company and look at whatever opportunities arise during that,” he says.

Elsewhere in the college, Ella Thomas, 19, says she was feeling a mixture of “excitement and relief” after finding out she got a distinction in her Extended Diploma in Creative Practice: Art, Design and Communication.

She’s heading to Falmouth University to study Game Art and says her results have given her “a boost of confidence in myself that I can do what I want to achieve”.

Bethan Lewis
BBC Wales Family & Education Correspondent

As we've been reporting, the proportion of top A-level grades marked A* or A have risen in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

For a third year, A-level results in Wales show a relatively stable picture after the years of pandemic disruption. The overall pass rate and top grades are slightly up.

Results from AS level, taken a year in to A-level courses and which still contribute 40% to the final grade in Wales, are slightly down on 2025.

At Olchfa School in Swansea this morning, which has one of the biggest sixth forms in Wales with 550 students, even those who didn’t get what they wanted were philosophical and some still got into their first choice university.

One thing that is notably different this year is that it’s a Plaid Cymru minister congratulating students after the party won May’s Senedd election.

A few months in, they won’t have had much impact on these results, but they have plenty of challenges to address including sorting out the problems of higher education in Wales.

Emily Holt
Education reporter, reporting from Canterbury

At Canterbury Academy in Kent there’s delight all round for three sisters.

Scarlett, Grace and Tabby Taylor have successfully made their firm choices, with Scarlett heading off to Oxford to study geography, Grace to do history and politics at Sussex University and Tabby to pursue dance at Bath Spa University.

The triplets are ecstatic for themselves, and for each other.

"It's proven to me I can do university and I will be able to succeed," Tabby says.

"I can do what I want to do and get where I want to be," Scarlett adds.

The triplets are also excited to visit each other at university.

Scarlett adds: "We will be able to see other places, it's so cool."

Our journalists are speaking to students across the country as they open their results this morning - follow along by clicking watch live above.

Emily, a student at English Martyrs School and Sixth Form College in Hartlepool, says she's happy with her A*, A and B after having felt "a bit sick" this morning.

She's now looking forward to starting a degree apprenticeship to become a solicitor. Emily says decided to take this route for the experience "now it's harder to get a job".

"Once you get the experience, it's a lot to put on your CV," she says.

"I've worked really hard, I've tried and that's all I can do at the end of the day - at least it's paid off."

Meanwhile, Civis now set for Newcastle University after getting two A*s and an A this morning.

He tells the BBC: "I'll do medicine and hopefully become a doctor" - a career path he decided on after speaking to his careers adviser in Year 11.

And as for celebrations today?

"I think I'll go and have a lie-in because it's a bit early and I might go out later," he says

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

The gap between the highest and lowest-performing regions in England has grown again, reaching a record high.

In London, 32.7% of A-level grades were marked at A* or A.

In the North East and the East Midlands it's 23.1%.

That’s a 9.6 percentage point gap – up from 9.2 last year, when the North East alone was the lowest-performing region.

It's the largest gap since the A* grade was introduced in 2010.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

The proportion of A-level grades marked A* or A have risen across the board.

This year the proportion of A-levels marked at A* and A was:

• 28.3% in England, up from 28.2% in 2025
• 29.6% in Wales, up from 29.5%
• 30.7% in Northern Ireland, up from 30.3%

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

Top A-level results across the whole of England, Wales and Northern Ireland have risen for a third year running – with 28.5% of all grades marked at A* or A.

That’s up from 28.3% last year.

Today’s results are still much lower than they were in 2020 and 2021, when exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers’ assessments.

After that, there was a concerted effort to bring them back down. Grading in England returned to pre-pandemic standards in 2023 – prompting a big fall in top grades – while Wales and Northern Ireland followed suit in 2024.

The proportion of top grades across all three nations has been slightly creeping up since that drop in 2023.

And it’s still higher than it was before the pandemic, when 25.4% of all grades were marked A* or A.

Katie Williams
Live reporter

Image source, Jade Bowler

Jade Bowler opened her A-level results on camera and shared them with thousands on her YouTube channel in 2018, in a video which has amassed more than 700,000 views.

She describes feeling "so much pressure" to get three A*s, fuelled by high hopes from her school and the added pressure of a local newspaper on site.

She wasn't disappointed. But her advice to her teenage self looking back is that your grades "are not a full picture of your potential".

Swapping an offer from Bristol for a gap year was the "best decision of my life," Jade tells me.

Stranded on a train in a country where you don't speak the language? "It’s at that moment you learn how to problem solve," she explains.

The decision inspired her to later study abroad, with Jade taking up a place at Minerva - an unconventional university with no campus.

While studying, she lived in six countries including Taiwan, Argentina and South Korea.

Image source, Jade Bowler

Emily Doughty
Education reporter, reporting from Carmel College in St Helens

Sam, a student at Carmel College, says he is “thrilled” to have achieved the results he needed to study aerospace engineering at Sheffield University.

He had been imagining “the worst case scenario” after facing the particularly hard maths paper one, which thousands of people signed a petition over earlier in the summer.

While the uncertainty was adding to his nerves this morning, he has achieved an A* in maths.

His post-exam celebration will be in September when he will go to the Italian Grand Prix, and he is dreaming of working on the pit wall for McLaren after completing his degree.

Whether you're happy with your exam results or you're unsure of what to do next, we want to hear from you.

We've got a panel of experts on hand to answer all your questions throughout the day.

You can get in touch and share your experiences in the following ways:

• Email: yourvoice@bbc.co.uk, external

• WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803 , external

• Upload your pictures and video

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In some cases a selection of your comments and questions will be published, displaying your name and location as you provide it unless you state otherwise. Your contact details will never be published.

So you've found out your results, but they're not what you were hoping for. Don't worry - you still have plenty of options.

• Check Ucas: If you only just miss out on the grades you need, the admissions office might accept you anyway. They may also offer you a place on a different course
• Clearing: If you've missed out on your firm or insurance university choices, you can apply through clearing, external - which is where universities and colleges list unfilled course places. There will also be a clearing portal for apprenticeships opening later this year
• Get your paper checked: If you missed out on your grade by just a few marks, you might want to consider getting the paper remarked
• Take a year out: You might decide to retake a subject, or reapply for the same course next year in the hope that it's less subscribed. For both these options, a year out can be productive and gives you the chance to work or travel too
• Speak to your school: It's always good to check in with your teachers too, they'll have lots of advice about what steps to take

Bethan Lewis
BBC Wales Family & Education Correspondent

Image source, Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service

Over the summer, 18-year-old Bobi Jones hasn’t had time to worry about his results. “I've got plenty on my plate, as it is,” the on-call firefighter says.

He became one of the youngest crew members for the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service when he joined up last autumn while studying A-levels in business and sport as well as the Welsh Baccalaureate qualification.

With the agreement of his school, Ysgol Bro Teifi in Llandysul, Ceredigion, he’s had to hastily pack up books and leave class when his bleeper’s gone off with an emergency call.

Teachers were “happy enough” as long as he caught up later, he says.

“It’s been a great experience,” says Bobi who’s been busy responding to wildfires over recent weeks.

Next, he’ll be doing an apprenticeship with a local electrician alongside his duties with the fire service.

Students across the country are ripping open envelopes to get their long-awaited exam results this morning.

We're seeing big smiles and scenes of joy from these students in South Yorkshire and Devon.

Ucas chief executive Jo Saxton says there will be a record number of new engineers this year.

Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, she says there are 35,000 students going on to study engineering at university, which is up 14% compared to last year.

Saxton says around 27,000 courses are available through clearing and there is a "huge amount of choice" including subjects such as maths, music and engineering.

Saxton tells students they can "absolutely still go to university in the autumn", even if they did not quite get the grades they were hoping for.

Emily Doughty
Education reporter, reporting from Carmel College in St Helens

Some students here at Carmel College in St Helens are already celebrating, even though they haven't opened their results yet.

That's because some, like Niamh, have already seen on Ucas that they've got their place at university secured.

Niamh says she is happy after finding out she has got into Edge Hill University to study psychology - now she just has to open the envelope to find out her exact results.

Hazel Shearing
Education correspondent

We’ve just heard from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), which says a record number of UK 18-year-olds have secured a place at their first choice of university.

Overall 228,990 18-year-olds have been accepted into their firm choice.

That's an increase from last year in terms of raw numbers.

But there's been a rise in the number of 18-year-olds in the UK, and the actual percentage of 18-year-old offer-holders who got into their first choice has fallen - from 82% to 79%.

Dr Jo Saxton, chief executive of Ucas, just told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that there were around 27,000 courses available in clearing.

"For those applicants who might be tearing open their results and not quite be getting what they hoped for, they can absolutely still go to university in the autumn if that’s what they would like to do," she says.

"There is lots and lots of choice."

She stressed that clearing is not just for people who didn't get the grades they needed to take up an offer - it is also used by applicants who want to "trade up" or change their mind and live closer to home, for example.

A moment ago, we reported that a quarter of a million students in the UK will be finding out shortly they have got an undergraduate place at university or college this year.

We can bring you more details on the figures:

• In total, 228,990 UK 18-year-olds have been accepted at their first (UCAS ‘firm’) choice of university or college - an increase of 1% on last year - while 31,770 have been placed at their insurance choice today

That figure translates to 79% of 18-year-olds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland who had received an offer and got their decision this morning have secured their 'firm' choice. While an additional 13% have got their insurance choice.

The clock has struck 8am and students across the country are opening their exam results.

The Ucas hub is expected to update shortly at around 08:15 and will confirm if pupils have made their offer for university.

Stick with us as we bring you more details on the national picture and speak to students about their next steps.

Ucas chief executive Jo Saxton has told the BBC a quarter of a million UK school and college leavers are "getting their place at university today" - calling it a "really good picture".