A-level students in Sunderland received their exam grades on Thursday morning. Exam boards have downgraded nearly 40% of school leavers’ grades in England according to Ofqual whilst UCAS figures show that the total number of students accepted on to UK degree courses has risen with 358,860 taking up places so far, up 2.9% on the same point last year. Report by Jonesia. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn