The proportion of UK undergraduate degrees awarded as firsts has hit a decade high.

According to data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), more than a quarter (28%) of classified first degrees were awarded first class honours.

In 2009/10 it was 14.4%.

HESA says the number of students achieving a first has increased two percentage points every year since 2013/14.

EDUCATION Degrees
(PA Graphics)

In 2017/18 a larger proportion of female students gained a first or upper second class degree than male students – 28% compared to 27%.

The figures from HESA also show that since the Brexit referendum in June 2016, there has been a slight drop in the number of first year students from other European Union countries – down 1% to 62,270 in 2017/18 from 63,035 in 2016/17.

But the number of first year students for 2017/18 are still higher than they were in 2013/14.

The number of first year students from non-EU countries rose by 8% to 185,415, up from 172,275 in 2016/17.