There was also a surge in European Union applicants, with Scottish universities accepting 3,850 students from the bloc – up 18.8 per cent from past year.
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Under rules imposed from Brussels they are now entitled to benefit from the SNP’s free tuition policy.
The city is also focused on the Duke of Edinburgh awards with an 80 per cent increase in the past five years of pupils achieving Bronze, Silver and Gold awards through schools and community groups.
More Scottish applicants are expected to be placed at providers across the United Kingdom in coming weeks.
Professor Sir John Holman adds: “It is disappointing that the overall number of students taking the Scottish Higher chemistry exam has fallen for the second year in a row”.
Advanced Higher passes rose to 19,443, with a pass rate of 81.7%.
This came despite a fall in the A to C pass rate for Higher exams, which were sat by 140,055 students across Scotland in May and June.
This is the first year that candidates were offered the full range of national qualifications from National 2 right through to Advanced Higher as part of the Curriculum for Excellence and according to the Highland Council, results have been largely well received.A spokesman said: ‘In S4, the percentage of pupils who achieved five-plus qualifications at National 5 has increased by nearly two per cent from last year.
Opposition MSPs also congratulated the students who passed but raised concerns over the gulf in reaching university between rich and poor areas.
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“Nicola Sturgeon has asked us to judge her on her success in closing this gap”.
It is the first year that all schools and colleges have offered the new Higher to candidates after last year’s…
Some controversy arose, however, after the pass rate for a maths exam deemed too hard was lowered to 34 per cent to compensate.
And for the first time, Glasgow has more than 90 per cent of pupils going on to a positive destination, such as work, training, college or university. These Higher results show a rise of 1.7%, 2.9% and 1% respectively on past year.
“Additional funded places would help universities to drive widening access further and ensure that highly qualified and well-deserving applicants, whatever their background, get the chance of a university education”.
Dr Janet Brown, SQA’s chief executive and Scotland’s chief examining officer said of this year’s results: “The new qualifications are performing well and the results clearly are enabling young people to transition between the levels and develop a wider range of skills”.
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“This year is only the second time in history that we have seen more than 150,000 Higher passes, up from around 112,000 just ten years ago”.
