Examination boards in the United Kingdom


Examination boards in the United Kingdom are the examination boards responsible for setting and awarding secondary education level s, such as GCSEs, Standard Grades, A Levels, Highers and vocational qualifications, to students in the United 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 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

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:
Though the exam boards have regional roots, 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 and Northern Ireland. The Wales-based WJEC offers qualifications in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. 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

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 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 schools in Wales had to use the Board, though other schools and colleges were free to choose.
The University of Birmingham disbanded its own exam board and joined the JMB in 1916.

School Certificate and Higher School Certificate

In 1918, the first national qualifications for England, Wales and Northern Ireland were introduced: the School Certificate, taken at 16, and the Higher School Certificate, taken at 18. 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.
The University of Durham Matriculation and School Examination Board renamed itself the Durham University Examinations Board in the 1930s.
The Welsh Joint Education Committee 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.

GCE (O Level and A Level)

In 1951, the General Certificate of Education was introduced. It was split into two stages: Ordinary Level and Advanced Level. These qualifications replaced the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate respectively.
The existing exam boards offered the GCE, alongside the Northern Ireland Schools Examination Council
These boards were soon joined by the Associated Examining Board, which was founded by City & Guilds in 1953.
The Southern Universities' Joint Board for School Examinations was founded in 1954 as a successor to the University of Bristol School Examinations Council.
The Durham University Examinations Board ceased to exist in 1964.
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.

CSE

In 1965, the Certificate of Secondary Education 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. 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 the existing boards were used. The CSE boards were:
In 1979, the neighbouring Metropolitan and Middlesex boards merged to form the London Regional Examinations Board. The West Yorkshire and Lindsey, and Yorkshire and Humberside Boards also merged to form the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Examinations Board in 1982.

GCSE

To create a more egalitarian system, the O Levels and CSE were replaced by the General Certificate of Secondary Education in 1986. As O Levels and CSEs had used different exam boards, 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:
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. 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.
When the Certificate of Achievement was introduced, the GCSE examining groups were responsible for administering the qualification.

Creation of the current boards

It was not long before the GCE 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.
AQA
All five members of the Northern Examining Association merged in 1992 to form NEAB. In 1994, the Oxford Schools Examinations Board sold its GCSE functions to the Associated Examining Board, who renamed themselves AEB/SEG. NEAB, AEB/SEG and the vocational City & Guilds formed the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance in 1997, with the AEB/SEG and NEAB formally merging into AQA in 2000. AQA is run as an educational charity.
OCR
The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate took over the Southern Universities' Joint Board in 1990 and the Midland Examining Group in 1993. When the Oxford Schools Examinations Board was abolished in 1995, its A Level functions were transferred to UCLES. In the same year, UCLES also took over the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board. UCLES then merged all its A Level boards together to form the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council. This left UCLES offering A Levels under the OCSEB name, GCSEs under the MEG name and some vocational qualifications under the UODLE name. This situation continued until 1998, when 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 for all its UK qualifications. 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. 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 were introduced.
Edexcel
The University of London School Examinations Board merged with the London and East Anglian Group to form the University of London Examinations & Assessment Council in 1991. In 1996, London Examinations merged with the vocational BTEC to form the Edexcel Foundation. Though it originally ran as an educational charity like AQA, the Foundation was taken over by Pearson in 2003, making it the only British exam board to be run by a profit-making company.
CCEA
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 in 1994. It is a non-departmental public body.
ICAAE, a division of ICAA, was founded in 1989. 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. It stopped offering such exams a few years later.
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. In 2014, WJEC launched a new brand, Eduqas, for new Ofqual-accredited qualifications, while retaining the name WJEC for Welsh Government-regulated qualifications.

Scotland

There is just one exam board in Scotland, the SQA, which offers all Scotland's qualifications.

History

Previously, academic qualifications were awarded by the Scottish Examination Board, and prior to that the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board, while vocational qualifications were awarded by the Scottish Vocational Education Council.

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 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.