Just 26.5% of exams taken by students in England were graded A* or A this year, down from 35.9% last year.

That marks a near-complete reversal of the grade inflation seen during the pandemic, with the share of top grades in England now just 1.3 percentage points above the level in 2019.

Grades in the devolved nations, by contrast, remain well above their pre-pandemic levels. More than a third of papers in Wales were graded A* or A (34%), up from just 26.5% in 2019. In Northern Ireland, 38% achieved top grades - compared to just 29% before the pandemic.

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Exam regulator Ofqual had instructed exam boards in England to aim for the share of top grades to be similar to the share awarded in 2019.

The share of exams failed in England has risen to 2.7% - the highest figure since 2008.

Failure rates in Wales and Northern Ireland, by contrast, were lower than rates seen in the two years before the pandemic.

Regulators in Wales and Northern Ireland have given exam boards until next year to bring grades down to pre-pandemic levels.

The Scottish Qualifications Authority has not set out a timeline, instead promising "a sensitive approach" this year which takes into account the effects of the pandemic.

Students in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also benefited from the advance notice about the content of their exam papers, a continuation of pandemic-era changes, which was not offered to those taking their A-levels in England.

The use of teacher assessments instead of exams during the pandemic led to a major increase in top grades in 2020 and 2021, with grade inflation persisting last year.

Regional inequalities have grown

Not all parts of England have seen their grades return to pre-pandemic levels, however.

In the two highest-performing regions, London and the South East, the share of papers receiving top grades remains well above 2019 levels.

In the North East, by contrast, the share receiving A* or A grades fell to 22%, compared to 23% before the pandemic.

The result has been a widening of inequality, with England’s worst-performing counties falling further behind better-performing areas.

The five counties which performed worst in 2019 have seen their share of top grades rise, on average, by one percentage point. The five best-performing counties have seen more than twice that increase (2.1 percentage points).

England’s worst-performing county in this year’s exams, the Isle of Wight, saw just 15.5% of papers graded A* or A, down from 16.8% in 2019.

Rutland, which came top of the leaderboard this year, had 37% of A-levels awarded top grades, up from 33.8% before the pandemic.

A survey released this week by the Social Mobility Foundation found that just 55% of students from low-income backgrounds had access to the government's flagship National Tutoring Programme, which was launched in 2020 in order to ease the impact of lockdowns on students' education.

By contrast, 72% of those from high-income backgrounds said they had had access to the programme.

Less than a quarter (22.6%) of A-levels taken by students at sixth-form colleges received top grades, up by 0.6% compared to 2019.

By contrast, the share receiving top grades has risen by 2.7 percentage points in both independent and selective schools.

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Top grades down on last year but still above pandemic levels

This year saw a record number of students taking A-levels. Classical subjects saw the biggest increase in uptake, with 21% taking exams on subjects such as Greek or Latin compared to last year.

Computing, media studies and political studies also saw significant increases, with economics entering the top 10 most popular subjects for the first time.

Modern languages have seen a continued fall in popularity, with the number of people taking Welsh as a first or second language down by 23%, and foreign language entries at their lowest since at least 2010. Performing arts, drama and music have also seen significant drops in student numbers.

Clare Marchant, UCAS’s chief executive, congratulated young people on their results.

She said: "I am delighted to see more than 200,000 UK 18-year-olds have secured their first choice, which is a testament to their hard work and commitment to progress to higher education in a year that has seen many complex factors at play, such as geopolitics, the economy and job market, and cost of living.

"However, today’s data shows that challenges in widening participation to the most disadvantaged students still persist.

"This demonstrates that we all need to continue the efforts to ensure the most disadvantaged individuals in society are able to benefit from life-changing opportunities in higher education and training, particularly as the 18-year-old population grows."