Dr Saxton said the “significant national programme to deflate their grades” at GCSE represented an “important backdrop” for those getting the grades for their Level 3 qualifications this week.
She also pointed out that, with GCSE grades down in 2023, fewer achieved the results they needed to start A-levels.
A-level entries fell from 825,355 last summer to 821,875 this summer, according to provisional data for England.
Dr Saxton said that students’ previous grades would therefore “probably” be “fractionally higher” across the cohort.
Last year, with grading back to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations, 27.8% of all A-level grades were marked at A* or A – up from 27.2% in 2023 and 25.4% in 2019.
There is likely to be less emphasis this year on how grades compare to 2019 and more on how they compare to last year, since it is the second year that grading has returned to pre-pandemic levels across the board.
Students heading to university will pay higher fees in England and Wales this year. They have risen to £9,535 for undergraduate courses.
Maintenance loans have also gone up, meaning that students can borrow more to help with their living costs.