Sarah Akintunde admits to being “scared”. The 18-year-old from Romford in Essex hopes to study law at Oxford university from September but needs Thursday’s exam results to deliver top grades to do so.

If that prospect was already daunting, the disruption of coronavirus and the scrapping of exams this year, in favour of a series of statistical assessments, means that the future for the 700,000 A level students due to get their results in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this week is even more uncertain than normal. “Even if you think you have done well”, says Ms Akintunde, “it doesn’t mean you have”.

The stakes are particularly high for students from ethnic minorities, like Ms Akintunde, those from low income backgrounds and from other groups traditionally under-represented in higher education — including white working class boys, roma and mature students.