Record A-Level Results As Uni Scramble Begins

Teenagers have scored record-breaking A-level results amid fears thousands will lose out in the scramble for university places.

The Ucas website crashed as students raced to discover their grades and there remain "intermittent" problems.

One in 12 exams achieved an A* grade, up 0.1% on last year when they were first introduced.

But the percentage of exams scoring at least an A grade has stalled for the first time in 15 years at 27%, the same as last year.

A spokesperson for Ucas, which manages university applications, confirmed there had been problems with the website.

High demand caused the Ucas Track site to fail but the organisation urged students to keep trying.

The website received 450 hits per second at times and some teenagers used to social media to vent their frustration that they could not log in to see their results.

For the 29th year in a row, the overall pass rate was up, with 97.8% of A-level entries scoring at least an E grade.

The figures, from the Joint Council for Qualifications, also suggest boys have begun to close the gap on girls on A* grades.

Thousands are desperately trying to secure a place at university ahead of the tuition fee rise in 2012.

More than 384,000 hopefuls are understood to have been accepted, with around 185,000 eligible for "clearing" - more than last year.

An influential think-tank has warned universities could be forced to cut fees within two years in a fight to avoid losing students.

The new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute also says the proposed fee systems could lead to an "arms race" for high achieving-students, with people from disadvantaged backgrounds facing fees of up to £9,000 likely to lose out.

HEPI said: "Even institutions in the £9,000 category will not have a comfortable time, as they will need to provide increasingly generous financial inducements to AAB+ students in order to avoid losing them to other universities that offer such inducements."

Eighteen-year-old Emily Watts from Nunthorpe needed three As to get into Durham to read law.

She told Sky News the rise in annual tuition fees next year has made the idea of a gap year impossible and created immense pressure to succeed.

She said: "A lot of my friends have been put off an awful lot, people who when we left school said they wanted to go to university.

"When they saw how much it cost and how hard it was going to be to get in they thought there's no way I'm going to do that.

"They've all decided to do apprenticeships instead and they could end up with perfectly good jobs, but when so many wanted to go to university, it's sad that money stopped them."

Paul Cottrell from the University and College Union told Sky News: "There are signs students are getting very worried about the cost of higher education.

"I think the trebling of tuition fees, although that does not come into place until 2012, already it has got across to young people the idea that going into higher education is very expensive.

"And I think particularly young people from poorer backgrounds will be deterred by that."

Mr Cottrell added: "Thousands of students will not get a place in universities because the Government is restricting the number of places available.

"The middle classes will get in, the students who come from independent schools will get places.

"It's the poorer students who may not have the best A-Level scores who will find the door slammed in their face and we're very concerned about the impact of that."

According to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas), 673,570 students have applied for university places.

Ucas, who run the clearing system matching disappointed students with spare courses, have doubled the number of advisers to 150.

Some of them will answer questions on Facebook and Twitter.

Many universities have no places to offer through clearing at all this year, leaving students who did not quite make the grade facing an unprecedented scramble.

Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said: "The intent of our higher education reforms is clear: we are putting students at the heart of the system with a financing system that is fairer and affordable for the nation.

"While we expect universities to offer good value for money, students will have the information to decide what course and institution is right for them.

"Institutions will have to work much harder to attract students and be explicit about the quality of their teaching and the type of experience they offer."

Unemployment figures show one in five under 24-year-olds are jobless.

Mr Willetts told Sky News the Government was trying to help young people by reforming higher education and improving apprenticeships.

Meanwhile, he has also suggested more modern subjects, like dance and media studies, should not be recognised as core academic subjects.