Examination boards in the United Kingdom

Examination boards in the United Kingdom (also called awarding bodies or "awarding organisations") are the examination boards responsible for setting and awarding secondary education level qualifications, such as GCSEs, Standard Grades, A Levels, Highers and vocational qualifications, to students in the United Kingdom.

Grades that can be awarded are the following:

• (GCSE & GCE): A*, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, U.
• (BTEC): Distinction*, Distinction, Merit, Pass, Fail.

In GCSE, grades A*-C generally indicate a pass, with D-G indicating a lower level. The U grade at GCSE indicates that a paper is "unmarked" due to different reasons, implying a fail. At BTEC, the equivalent is a Fail. Most courses at GCSE come in Higher (A*-D) and Lower (C-G) tiers. In the past academic exam boards and vocational accreditors were used to be 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 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and one for Scotland. As a result, two separate sets of exam boards have been developed.

England, Wales and Northern Ireland

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

• AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance)
• CIE (University of Cambridge International Examinations)
• CCEA (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment)
• Edexcel (Edexcel Pearson - London Examinations)
• ICAAE (International Curriculum and Assessment Agency Examinations)
• OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations)
• WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee)

CIE is another exception: it is traditionally an international exam board, but now offers the Cambridge Pre-U, Cambridge International Certificate and International versions of GCSEs and A-levels^[1][2] to state schools.

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 situation existing at A Level. (It is worth noting that a school using, say, OCR for GCSE History is perfectly free to pick a different board for A Level History.)

History

Early beginnings

Exam boards have been around as long as there have been qualifications offered by schools. As universities had experience of offering qualifications, such as degrees, 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:

• 1857: University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded by the University of Oxford)^[3]
• 1858: University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES, founded by the University of Cambridge)^[4]
• 1858: University of Durham Matriculation and School Examination Board (founded by the University of Durham)
• 1873: Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (founded by the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge)^[5]
• 1896: Central Welsh Board (founded by the Welsh local authorities)^[6]
• 1900: University of Birmingham^[7]
• 1902: University of London Extension Board (founded by the University of London)^[7]
• 1903: Joint Matriculation Board (JMB, founded by the University of Manchester, the University of Liverpool and the University of Leeds)^[7]
• 1911: University of Bristol School Examinations Council (founded by the University of Bristol)^[7]

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 schools in Wales had to use the Board, though other schools and colleges were free to choose.^[6]

School Certificate and Higher School Certificate

In the 1910s, the first national qualifications for England, Wales and Northern Ireland were introduced: the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate.^[8]

The Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC) was founded by the Welsh local authorities. It took over many of the Central Welsh Board's responsibilities, including running Wales's exam system.^[9]

GCE (O Level and A Level)

In the 1950s, the General Certificate of Education (GCE) was introduced. It was split into two stages: Ordinary Level (O Level) and Advanced Level (A Level). These qualifications replaced the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate respectively.

GCSE

To create a more egalitarian system, the O Levels were replaced by the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) in the 1980s.^[10] As O Levels had used different exam boards (except in Wales and Northern Ireland), new 'examining groups' were created (see creation of current exam boards).

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.^[11]

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

Creation of the current boards

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.^[12]

AQA

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) is the largest British exam board for GCSEs and GCE A-Levels. It is based and headquartered in Manchester, England, UK but also has an office in London.^[13]

OCR and CIE

When the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) was abolished, its A Level functions were transferred to UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate). UCLES also took over the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (OCSEB). UCLES then merged all its A Level boards together to form the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council (OCEAC).^[4] This left UCLES offering A Levels under the OCSEB name, GCSEs under the MEG name and some vocational qualifications under the UODLE name.^[14] This situation continued until UCLES took over the vocational Royal 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.^[12] OCR is now the only major exam board owned by a university and is still run by the University of Cambridge, through its Cambridge Assessment division.

Cambridge Assessment also controls CIE, a predominately international exam board that started offering some qualifications to English, Welsh and Northern Irish state schools.

Edexcel

London Examinations merged with the vocational BTEC to form the Edexcel Foundation. Though it originally ran as an educational charity the Foundation was taken over by Pearson(the examination board is known colloquially as Edexcel and formally as Edexcel Pearson - London Examinations), making it the only British exam board to be run by a profit-making company. Edexcel is a portmanteau term combining the words Education & Excellence.

CCEA and ICAAE

The Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) is a non-departmental public body.

ICAAE (International Curriculum & Assessment Agency) was founded in the 1980s.^[15]

WJEC

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.

Scotland

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

History

Previously, academic qualifications were awarded by the Scottish Examination Board, while vocational qualifications were awarded by the Scottish Vocational Education Council (SCOTVEC). The two organisations were then merged to form the Scottish Qualifications Authority SQA.

Examination boards working together

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

The JCQ (Joint Council for Qualifications) is a common voice for UK exam boards. The JCQ is made up of AQA, CCEA, Edexcel, OCR, SQA and WJEC. Among its roles, it devises standard rules for exams and publishes statistics. British examination boards (i.e. England & Ireland) are accredited and regulated by the government of the United Kingdom.

References

Examination boards in the United Kingdom England, Wales and Northern Ireland AQA CIE CCEA Edexcel OCR WJEC Scotland SQA Notable historic boards AEB JMB MEG NEAB SEB