A RECORD number of A-level students have achieved a place at university, the chief executive of Ucas has said.

Mary Curnock Cook, head of the body which manages university admissions, said 424,000 students will be offered their first or second choice of degree course.

She told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "It's 424,000 placed - the highest ever on A-level results day. It's up 3% on last year."

"It does mean that young people now are something like 4% more likely to be going to university because, although the population was down a bit this year we've actually seen a rise in the numbers, so that's really good news."

The gap between the very top-performing girls and boys at A-level has narrowed for the first time in five years, as the proportion of A* being awarded to students in 2016 also dropped, official figures show.

The proportion of students offered the coveted A* and A grades in the UK dropped slightly, from 25.9% in 2015 to 25.8% this year.

Boys continued to earn more A*, with 8.5% achieving the very top grade - although this is down from 8.7% last year, contrary to some predictions.

Girls also dropped, from 7.8% at A* to 7.7%, meaning the gap between the two sexes has narrowed to 0.8% from 0.9%.

Including A grades, girls continue to slightly out-perform their male counterparts - with 25.9% for girls compared with 25.8% for boys.

Mathematics remains the most popular subject, accounting for 11.0% of all entries, followed by English (10.1%) and biology (7.5%), the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) said.

Entries in French, German and Spanish all dropped.

The number of exams taken has declined by 1.7%, from 850,749 last year to 836,705.

The results follow changes in a decoupling of AS-levels and A-levels,

Michael Turner, the JCQ's director general, said: "Overall, outcomes are relatively unchanged.

"However, the shift in entry patterns and the introduction of new specifications in reformed subjects could lead to a greater volatility in year-on-year results in some schools and colleges than is experienced in a typical year."