Midland Examining Group
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| Midland Examining Group | |
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| Abbreviation | MEG |
| Formation | 1985 |
| Extinction | 1998 |
| Purpose/focus | Examination board |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, UK |
| Region served | England, Wales and Northern Ireland |
| Parent organization | UCLES |
The Midland Examining Group (MEG) was an examination board, operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It offered a range of GCSE and Certificate of Achievement qualifications. It became part of OCR in 1998.
[edit] History
The board was one of a number of 'examining groups' formed to develop syllabi for the new GCSE qualification, which was due to replace the O Level and CSE qualifications in 1988. Thus, MEG was formed by the East Midlands Regional Examinations Board (EMREB), the West Midlands Examinations Board (TWMEB), the Southern Universities Joint Board (SUJB) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (OCSEB) in 1985.
Despite its regional name, schools were free to pick which exam board to use for their qualifications and MEG eventually set 30% of all GCSE qualifications taken each year[1]. The board also wrote syllabi for the Certificate of Achievement (now Entry Level Certificate), aimed at students working below GCSE level. The board never offered any A Level qualifications, as its parent from 1993, the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), already offered A Levels through another of its subsidiaries, the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council (OCEAC).
In 1997, UCLES announced that it was, with the Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board (RSAEB), launching the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) exam board, which would take over running all UCLES (including MEG and OCEAC) and RSA qualifications in the United Kingdom. OCR took over the running of all MEG's, OCEAC's and RSAEB's qualifications on October 1 1998, though it continued to use the old syallbi until they expired. The MEG name appeared on some, but not all, of the June 1999 exam papers, but the certificates for that year, and all subsequent exam papers, featured the OCR name only.
