Michael Gove, now environment secretary, arrived at the Department for Education at the start of the 2010 coalition with a closely worked blueprint for raising academic standards. Mr Gove long ago moved on, but his reforms have now reached fruition in the first set of results of his “more rigorous” A-levels. A core group of 13 of the most academic subjects – but excluding maths and further maths – no longer have an AS exam, only an end of course final test. Initial fears that that would mean worse results were eased when Sally Collier, the head of the joint council for qualifications, confirmed that, as usual, there would be “smoothing” so that this year’s grades reflected the abilities of the pupils sitting them. As a result, it is hard to interpret the significance of the headline findings showing a small decline in overall passes, and boys doing slightly better, girls slightly worse, than they did last year.

But in a buyer’s market where a demographic dip means fewer 18-year-olds, who are applying for places in a rapidly expanding university sector, more students than ever have decided to wait and apply once they know their A-level grades. At least that is what universities hope. For there is mounting evidence that with the graduate bonus shrinking, consent for student fees is ebbing away. This September, not only do the poorest students lose their maintenance grants and nursing students their bursaries, but fees go up to £9,250 and loans attract an interest rate of 6.1%. That is around three times the rate of a personal loan or a mortgage, and it will be levied despite repayments being securely collected through graduates’ pay packets. It is extortionate. The man who first introduced fees, Andrew Adonis, is now campaigning against them. Even David Willetts, who as universities minister raised fees to £9,000, thinks recent changes have gone too far.

Universities minister Jo Johnson says there is no evidence it is putting anyone off: the Office for Fair Access reports higher numbers of acceptances than ever from students from disadvantaged backgrounds. But breaking down the results into the regions of England and Wales shows how deep and persistent the geographical as well as the wealth divide continues to be in A-levels and university applications. The further south you live, the more likely to go to university: a constituency analysis shows 70% of 18-year-olds in Wimbledon, south London, go on to university; 52% in Leeds North East. Access is a complex subject. But despite more than a decade of effort there is still a huge gap, and that ought to make what happens to school leavers who don’t go to university a much bigger political issue than it has yet become.

It is typical of the low political priority of alternatives to university – such as technical and vocational training – that the government has not closed down the biggest provider of apprenticeships and adult training, Learndirect, despite the publication of a highly critical Ofsted report which found that it was failing many of its students. Instead the business, which was privatised under David Cameron and inexplicably involved in Formula One sponsorship, has been given a year’s grace. Meanwhile, FE colleges are cash-starved, and the new apprenticeship scheme is still only embryonic. Yet more than half of school leavers do not go into higher education (and of those who do, more than 12% end up in jobs for which they are overqualified); the number of vacancies for skilled workers is rising sharply and is likely to worsen after Brexit. Judged by its success in meeting the needs of the economy, Michael Gove’s focus on the academic is looking misdirected.