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Examination boards in the United Kingdom

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Examination boards in the United Kingdom(sometimes calledawarding bodiesorawarding organisations) are theexamination boardsresponsible for setting and awardingsecondary educationlevelqualifications,such asGCSEs,Standard Grades,A Levels,Highersandvocationalqualifications, to students in theUnited Kingdom.

Until the mid-1990s, academic exam boards and vocational accreditors were run very much as separate organisations. In more recent times, this distinction has been removed, with all the term 'awarding bodies' now being used. This article focuses on the contemporary and historical awarding bodies that set academic exams in state schools. In everyday terminology, these organisations are still referred to as 'exam boards'.

Broadly speaking, the UK has always had two separate school systems: one forEngland,WalesandNorthern Ireland;and one forScotland.As a result, two separate sets of exam boards have been developed.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

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England, Wales and Northern Ireland have several exam boards; schools and colleges can choose freely between them on a subject-by-subject basis. Currently, there are five exam boards available to state schools:

  • AQA(Assessment and Qualifications Alliance)
  • CCEA(Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment)
  • OCR(Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations)
  • Pearson,under itsEdexcelbrand
  • WJEC(Welsh Joint Education Committee), under its WJEC andEduqasbrands

Though the exam boards have regional roots (see below), they now operate across larger areas. The three boards based in England – AQA, OCR and Edexcel – offer all their qualifications across England with a smaller number in Wales (where no 'homegrown' qualification is available) and Northern Ireland (where the qualifications meet the regulator's requirements). The Wales-based WJEC offers qualifications in Wales (mostly under its WJEC brand), England (nearly always under its Eduqas brand) and Northern Ireland (under either brand). CCEA, despite previously offering qualifications in England and Wales, now only operates in Northern Ireland. Most exam boards offer a range of qualifications, though not all boards offer every qualification in every subject.

Schools and colleges have a completely free choice between the boards, depending on the qualification offered. Most schools use a mixture of boards for their GCSE qualifications, with a similar mixture existing at A Level. In addition, a school using one board for a particular GCSE subject is free to use a different board for the equivalent subject at A Level.

History of the exam boards

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Early beginnings

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Exam boards have been around as long as there have been qualifications offered by schools. Asuniversitieshad experience of offering qualifications, such asdegrees,it was natural that they created the first exam boards. Indeed, the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge each had their own exam board and a joint board they ran together. The qualifications offered were generally of the boards' own creation. Schools and colleges (with some exceptions, detailed below) were free to pick which board they wanted to use, though most went for a local board.

The early boards established included:

The Central Welsh Board differed from most exam boards, as it was not controlled by a university and only offered examinations to schools and colleges in Wales.Intermediate schoolsin Wales had to use the Board, though other schools and colleges were free to choose.[4]

The University of Birmingham disbanded its own exam board and joined the JMB in 1916.[5]

School Certificate and Higher School Certificate

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In 1918, the first national qualifications for England, Wales and Northern Ireland were introduced: theSchool Certificate,taken at 16, and theHigher School Certificate,taken at 18.[6]The existing exam boards started offering the new qualifications, normally in place of their own qualifications.

In 1930, the University of London Extension Board renamed itself the University of London Matriculation and School Examinations Council before becoming University of London University Entrance and School Examinations Council and School Examinations Department in 1951.[5]

The University of Durham Matriculation and School Examination Board renamed itself the Durham University Examinations Board in the 1930s.

TheWelsh Joint Education Committee(WJEC) was founded by the Welsh local authorities in 1948. It took over many of the Central Welsh Board's responsibilities, including running Wales's exam system.[7]

GCE (O Level and A Level)

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In 1951, theGeneral Certificate of Education(GCE) was introduced. It was split into two stages:Ordinary Level(O Level, taken at 16) and Advanced Level (A Level, taken at 18). These qualifications replaced the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate respectively.

The existing exam boards offered the GCE, alongside theNorthern Ireland Schools Examination Council .[8]

These boards were soon joined by theAssociated Examining Board(AEB), which was founded byCity & Guildsin 1953.[9]

TheSouthern Universities' Joint Board for School Examinationswas founded in 1954 as a successor to the University of Bristol School Examinations Council.[5]

The Durham University Examinations Board ceased to exist in 1964.[5]

The University of London University Entrance and School Examinations Council and School Examinations Department was renamed the University of London School Examinations Board in 1984.[5]

CSE

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In 1965, theCertificate of Secondary Education(CSE) was introduced. It was aimed at the 80% of 16-year-old students who did not take O Levels and, until then, had left school with no qualifications.[10]CSEs were administered on a local basis, with local boards offering the qualifications. The local boards in England were new organisations, while in Wales and Northern Ireland (where universities did not control the existing boards) the existing boards were used. The CSE boards were:[11][12]

In 1979, the neighbouring Metropolitan and Middlesex boards merged to form theLondon Regional Examinations Board.[11]The West Yorkshire and Lindsey, and Yorkshire and Humberside Boards also merged to form theYorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Boardin 1982.[5]

GCSE

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To create a more egalitarian system, the O Levels and CSE (but not the A Level) were replaced by theGeneral Certificate of Secondary Education(GCSE) in 1986.[10]As O Levels and CSEs had used different exam boards (except in Wales and Northern Ireland), new 'examining groups' were created. In England, the four examining groups were consortia of regional GCE and CSE exam boards, while in Wales and Northern Ireland they were the existing boards, making six boards in total:[8]

  • London East Anglian Group(formed by the University of London School Examinations Board, the London Regional Examination Board and the East Anglian Examinations Board)
  • Midland Examining Group(MEG, formed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, the Southern Universities' Joint Board, the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board, East Midland Regional Examinations Board and the West Midlands Examinations Board)
  • Northern Examining Association(NEA, formed by the Joint Matriculation Board, the Associated Lancashire Schools Examining Board, the North Regional Examinations Board, the North West Regional Examinations Board and the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Board)
  • Northern Ireland Schools Examination Council
  • Southern Examining Group(SEG, formed by the Associated Examining Board, the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations, the South-East Regional Examinations Board, South Western Examinations Board and Southern Regional Exams Board)
  • Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC)

As CSEs were no longer offered, the CSE boards effectively ceased to operate as independent boards and instead became part of their larger examining groups (some were even taken over by larger members of their groups, such as the Southern Regional Examinations Board, which was acquired by the Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations in 1985 to form theOxford School Examinations Board;[2]and the South-East Regional Examinations Board and South Western Examinations Board, which merged with the AEB in 1987.[13]The GCE boards, however, retained a degree of autonomy, as they still offered A Levels independently.

Though the boards were regional, schools were entirely free to pick which board they did their GCSE qualifications with and could mix and match between subjects.[14]

When the Certificate of Achievement (now theEntry Level Certificate,a qualification below GCSE level) was introduced, the GCSE examining groups were responsible for administering the qualification.

Creation of the current boards

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It was not long before the GCE (A Level) boards and GCSE examining groups began to formally merge or enter into even closer working relationships. This made sense, as it allowed merged boards to offer both GCSE and A Level qualifications and the boards were working together to offer the GCSE qualifications anyway. Many boards also took the opportunity to merge with vocational exam boards, as vocational qualifications became more common in schools. The government encouraged this, as they wanted to simplify the system by having fewer exam boards.[15]

AQA
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All five members of the Northern Examining Association merged in 1992 to formNEAB.In 1994, the Oxford Schools Examinations Board sold its GCSE functions to the Associated Examining Board[16](OSEB's A Level functions went to UCLES).[2]NEAB, the AEB and the vocational City & Guilds formed the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) in 1997,[17]with the AEB and NEAB formally merging into AQA in 2000 (City & Guilds chose to remain independent, but sold itsGNVQprovision to AQA). AQA is run as an educational charity.[18]

OCR
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The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) took over the Southern Universities' Joint Board in 1990[19][20]and the Midland Examining Group (MEG) in 1993.[21]When the Oxford Schools Examinations Board was abolished in 1995, its A Level functions were transferred to UCLES (its GCSE functions went to AEB/SEG).[2]In the same year, UCLES also took over the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (OCSEB). UCLES then merged all its A Level boards together to form theOxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council(OCEAC).[3]This left UCLES offering A Levels under the OCSEB name, GCSEs under the MEG name and some vocational qualifications under the UODLE name.[22]This situation continued until 1998, when UCLES took over the vocationalRoyal Society of Arts Examinations Board.Following the merger, it chose to use the name Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) for all its UK qualifications.[15]OCR is now the only major exam board owned by a university and is still run by theUniversity of Cambridge,through itsCambridge Assessmentdivision.

Cambridge Assessment also controls CIE, a predominately international exam board. CIE started offering some qualifications to English, Welsh and Northern Irish state schools in 2008, though it later withdrew from this market when the reformed GCSEs and A Levels (examined 2017 onwards) were introduced.

Edexcel
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The University of London School Examinations Board merged with the London and East Anglian Group to form the University of London Examinations & Assessment Council (known as London Examinations or ULEAC) in 1991.[5]In 1996, London Examinations merged with the vocationalBTECto form the Edexcel Foundation (the legal entity called London Qualifications). Though it originally ran as an educational charity like AQA, the Foundation was taken over byPearsonin 2003 (and renamed simply Edexcel), making it the only British exam board to be run by a profit-making company.[23]

CCEA
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The Northern Ireland Schools Examination Council became the Northern Ireland School Examinations and Assessment Council before being replaced by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in 1994. It is a non-departmental public body.

ICAAE, a division ofICAA,was founded in 1989.[24]It specialises in a small number of business and ICT courses. It began offering GCSEs in 1997, in partnership with CCEA. In 2009, it began offering exams independently of CCEA.[25]It stopped offering such exams a few years later.

WJEC
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Unlike the other boards, WJEC did not experience any major organisational changes and is still owned by the Welsh local authorities, though it operates independently. In 2014, WJEC launched a new brand,Eduqas,for new Ofqual-accredited qualifications (mostly offered in England), while retaining the name WJEC for Welsh Government-regulated qualifications.

Scotland

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There is just one exam board in Scotland, theSQA(Scottish Qualifications Authority), which offers all Scotland's qualifications.

History

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Previously, academic qualifications were awarded by theScottish Examination Board(SEB), and prior to that theScottish Certificate of Education Examination Board(SCEEB), while vocational qualifications were awarded by theScottish Vocational Education Council(SCOTVEC).

Examination boards working together

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The UK's examination boards sometimes work together. For example, they sometimes offer qualifications jointly or share training materials for common parts of specifications.

TheJCQ(Joint Council for Qualifications) is a common voice for UK exam boards. The JCQ is made up of AQA, CCEA, City & Guilds, Edexcel, OCR, SQA and WJEC. Among its roles, it devises standard rules for exams and publishes statistics.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Education History - RSA".Thersa.org.
  2. ^abcde"Home".Bodleian Libraries.
  3. ^ab"UCLES | Corporate Information".Archived fromthe originalon May 24, 1998.Retrieved2013-10-03.
  4. ^ab[1][dead link]
  5. ^abcdefghijkKathleen Tattersall."A BRIEF HISTORY OF POLICIES, PRACTICES AND ISSUES RELATING TO COMPARABILITY"(PDF).Webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2 December 2013.Retrieved10 January2019.
  6. ^"150th anniversary exhibition"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on June 6, 2011.RetrievedAugust 9,2008.
  7. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2011-06-16.Retrieved2014-09-17.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ab"University Application Form: Notes for Guidance"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on February 21, 2007.RetrievedAugust 7,2008.
  9. ^"Awarding organisation for A levels, GCSEs, BTECs and other qualifications"(PDF).Edexcel.Retrieved2013-10-03.
  10. ^ab"The story of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE)".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-09-14.Retrieved2008-10-11.
  11. ^ab"CSE Exam Records"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on July 24, 2008.RetrievedAugust 7,2008.
  12. ^"Obtaining past exam certificates".Archived fromthe originalon 2008-08-07.Retrieved2016-05-17.
  13. ^The Associated Examining Board Report and Accounts for the Year Ended 31 March 1988.Guildford: AEB. 1988. p. 3.
  14. ^"GCSE - Further Report on Progress".Archived fromthe originalon September 27, 2004.RetrievedAugust 7,2008.
  15. ^ab"Education Jobs, Teaching Resources, Magazine & Forums".The TES.Retrieved2013-10-03.[permanent dead link]
  16. ^Day, John (2003). "The Associated Examining Board and the Southern Examining Group".Setting the Standard: A Century of Public Examining by AQA and Its Parent Boards.Manchester: AQA. p. 50.ISBN0954470508.
  17. ^"Education Jobs, Teaching Resources, Magazine & Forums".The TES.Retrieved2013-10-03.[permanent dead link]
  18. ^"Our Executive Board".Archived fromthe originalon July 24, 2008.RetrievedAugust 7,2008.
  19. ^[2]ArchivedJuly 3, 2008, at theWayback Machine
  20. ^"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon 2007-01-09.Retrieved2016-05-17.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  21. ^"MEG".Archived fromthe originalon August 29, 2006.Retrieved2013-10-03.
  22. ^"UCLES: Index & Search".24 May 1998. Archived fromthe originalon 24 May 1998.
  23. ^"Our history | Our history | Who we are | About Us".Edexcel. 2010-11-17.Retrieved2013-10-03.
  24. ^"Shambles in S.E.Asia: ICAA International Curriculum & Assessment Agency".Shambles.net.Retrieved2013-10-03.
  25. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2013-10-04.Retrieved2011-12-21.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  26. ^"Get CAIE A and O level papers solved by Cambridge Paper Searcher".caiefinder.com.Retrieved2021-02-08.
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