Once again, maths is the most popular A-level subject. There were 115,380 entries in the subject in 2026, an increase of 3.9% from 2025. Further maths AS-level entries enjoyed an 8.5% increase from 2025 as well.

Moreover, recently published data from university admissions service Ucas for the 2026 application cycle showed a marked 11% increase in applications to study mathematical sciences at university.

All of these figures show that maths remains not just a hugely popular subject at school, but that more students are wanting to pursue it further.

In my opinion as a research mathematician, the staggering leaps that generative AI has made means there is no better time to be studying mathematics.

The possibilities of AI

AI is solving mathematics problems that have stood for decades. In May, OpenAI announced a counter-example to Paul Erdős’ planar unit distance problem, which stood unsolved for more than 80 years. In July, Anthropic’s LLM Claude Fable 5 found a counter-example to the Jacobian conjecture, which has stood since 1939.

Most recently, OpenAI announced “ten advances in mathematics and theoretical computer science” made with their internal model Astra. Very few would have predicted that AI would make progress on a vast range of difficult problems that have baffled mathematicians for........

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