The Final A-level: I'm Sorry, Your Princess is in Another University.

Or, more likely, she's quite possibly not in any of them.

That's right folks, the time of year arrived in which, here in the UK, our young gather in their droves at schools all across the country to open the dreaded brown envelope and find out their A-level results. This was, of course, a couple of days ago, but you see where I'm going.

As a matter of fact, this year has been even better than the last 29 years worth of improving results (pause for right-wingers to whine about how standards have been slipping. Maybe with an "In my day..." thrown in for good measure). But, behind the newspaper's pictures of, as the i puts it, "girls with long glossy hair embracing each other on a lawn with mellow stone buildings in the background," (see link below for an attempt to prove this statement) is the rather large problem facing a huge majority of would-be applicants, that there are about thirty thousand vacancies left, for nearly two hundred thousand applicants going through clearing. Those kinds of figures make me very glad to have gotten in when I did. If I had dilly-dallied I might have had to actually get a job!

Some have put this crushing number of students down to a (rather fervent) wish to get in before fees rise in 2012. Whether or not this is the case, it remains to be seen if universities are going to just say 'bugger it' and start taking bribes. Or, perhaps more likely perhaps not, decide between the types of student will benefit them the most: The rich privileged kiddywinkles who rock up in 'Daddy's lotus,' or the students from minority groups and underprivileged backgrounds which help to keep up appearances for the equal opportunities parade (ooh controversy!).

I do wonder what will happen for the students that have the grades, or near enough, but don't have their places. Will they simply wait and try again next year? And if so, will that create an almost permanent queue to which future students will have to join the back of? I'd say something cheerful about the world always needing bin men, but I'm not sure that's what they want to hear right now.

Hey, there's always Big Brother!
For some reason...

But until then, here's some sexy A-level pictures:  http://sexyalevels.tumblr.com/