HEPI response to today's exam results: Nine points to note from Nick Hillman

I used to spend every results day at the UCAS headquarters in Cheltenham with the Minister for Universities, where there was always a media scramble. When asked how the Government should respond to the kerfuffle, my advice was always: start by congratulating the hundreds of thousands of people receiving their results. This was partly to change the official results day narrative, which for much of the 2010s (as in the past two years too), had focused on grade inflation rather than the achievements of people after years of study at school and college.