THE rush to grab remaining university places began in earnest yesterday as the region's A-level students yet again celebrated record pass rates.

Durham University said it had received 1,500 calls in the first three hours that its clearing hotlines were open after students received exam results.

Meanwhile, pass rates in many areas of the North-East and North Yorkshire topped the national average.

Keith Mitchell, director of education at Durham County Council, said many of its schools had showed substantial improvements.

He said: "Our key measure for A-levels is the percentage of pupils gaining two or more A to C grades.

"Early indications show that over 54 per cent of students in County Durham schools have gained two or more A to C grades, an increase of two per cent on last year.

"The improvement in some of our schools is substantial, and in one, Park View at Chester-le-Street, 100 per cent of students have gained two or more at A to E grades."

North Yorkshire County Council said A-level students at its schools were again well ahead of the national position.

Education director Cynthia Welbourn said youngsters should be congratulated on another "outstanding set of results.

But she said she was exasperated to see people running down the achievements of many students.

She said: "Although some people each year say this must mean that exams are not what they used to be, that is not true.

"Our young people work hard, they are well-informed and they are smart, and that is why they know how to do well."

North-East businessman Bill Midgeley, president of the national Chambers of Commerce, said: "Credit to the youngsters, I am not going to knock their results.

"The concern from a business point of view is that once students have their A-levels, the Government seems bent on getting 50 per cent of them to university to do degrees, many of which have no real value in the workplace.

"Business needs well educated people, but it also needs people with good skills appropriate to the job, and there should be more emphasis on skills training rather than just driving people down the academic route."

There was also concern about a decline in students taking science at A-level which it was said could have dire consequences for the North-East's process and chemical industries

Nigel Perry, chief executive of the Centre for Process Innovation, in the Tees Valley, said traditional A-levels such as physics and chemistry were being undermined by so-called "soft" option subjects and could mean a generation of scientists being lost.