A Level Results day 2011 at Fareham College

A Level Results day 2011 at Fareham College.

Hundreds of thousands of teenagers are celebrating today as the A-level pass rate rises yet again for the 29th year in a row.

8.2% of A-level entries have been awarded the new A* grade this year, up 0.1% from last year, when the elite grade was introduced; the overall the pass rate has risen again with 97.8% of A-level entries receiving at least an E grade (up from 97.6% last year.)

Published by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) today's figures come amid intense competition as record numbers of students have applied for around 470,000 university places this September ahead of the huge hike in fees next year. Students waiting until next September before going to university could face a £27,000 bill over the course of their degree as tuition fees at English universities rise to a maximum of £9,000-a-year. This could mean that fewer students will take gap years, choosing instead to go straight to university to take advantage of the current fees, which are just £3,000-a-year.

Currently more than 6 students are competing for every place available through Clearing.

Despite all this the atmosphere at Fareham College at 10am today was jubilant:

"We're absolutely over the moon," Nigel Duncan, Acting Principal at Fareham College told me. "Students achieved 99% passes at A2 level and we had 100% passes in 89% of subjects. We also got a 98% pass rate at BTECH National Level with the most distinctions ever!"

I went into Fareham College this morning and spoke to some of the students about their results and plans for the future – see the Gallery later on today for some personal stories.

How did you do? We'd love your story or to hear your plans on the FarehamPeople site.