Results open places at such prestigious universities as Oxford, Yale and Harvard
Students have notched up A grades in more than 40 per cent of British A-levels taken with the English Schools Foundation (ESF) - setting a new record for Hong Kong.
The foundation's five secondary schools saw the percentage of top grades rise 2.2 percentage points to 42.6 per cent in results announced yesterday, as the pass rate in Britain rose for the 22nd consecutive year.
Provisional British results showed the pass rate rose by 0.8 of a percentage point to 95.4 per cent, and candidates gaining A grades also rose 0.8 of a point to 22.4 per cent, triggering the annual row over whether the A-level examination is being 'dumbed down'.
As British examination chiefs insisted the A-level gold standard was being maintained, critics claimed it would become a 'no-fail' exam within six years, if present trends continued.
The results are the last before a British government working party is due to announce its final recommendations for a school-leaving diploma to replace the A-levels.
However, the 520 ESF students who picked up their results on Thursday saw their pass rate fall by a margin of 0.4 per cent to 98.9 per cent.