What's happening?
The range of academic and vocational qualifications offered in schools and colleges is being reviewed, along with apprenticeship frameworks.
- Reforms to GCSEs and A levels will result in structurally different qualifications with the same name in different parts of the UK.
- The flexibility offered by the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland and the decoupling of the AS from the A level in England means that secondary schools and colleges are likely to offer increasingly diverse programmes.
- In the next few years it's likely that significant numbers of students will be applying to higher education with new qualifications and new combinations of qualifications. Universities and colleges are already reviewing their entry requirements and offer-making approaches to ensure applicants are not disadvantaged.
Resources
View and download our useful resources to learn more about qualification reform.
We have produced a range of support materials to provide you with information on qualification reform across the UK. We'll be updating these throughout the year, and providing toolkits and FAQs.
We'll also be sending you a qualification bulletin three times a year, to keep you updated on the latest developments.
If you have any suggestions or feedback about our resources, please email Ben Jordan, Senior Policy Executive: b.jordan@ucas.ac.uk
Qualification reform: a guide to what is happening around the UK- Qualification reform timeline
- Department for Education presentation – A level reform: The essentials
- OCR guidance on co-teachability of reformed AS and A levels in England
- Ofqual postcard on new GCSE grading structure and our accompanying guidance on changes to GCSE grading (485.39 KB) to help universities and colleges that are reviewing their GCSE entry requirements
- SPA's NETT Guidance for school and college references - what HEPs would like to know
- DfE performance measures FAQs (294.4 KB)
In 2017, students in England will be awarded 9 — 1 for their GCSE qualifications for the first time. This new grading scale does not directly align to the previous A* — G grading scale. To provide clarity about how the HE sector has responded to these reforms, UCAS asked universities and colleges how they intended to position their future GCSE entry requirements. Our GCSE survey results (868.88 KB) shows how they responded.
Qualification Information Profiles (QIPs)
You may also find our digital Qualification Information Profiles (QIPs) of use.
QIPs provide objective, comparable information about qualifications which providers can use to inform decisions about the admission of students. They help to provide information in a clear and consistent format across different qualifications, and include a range of information such as size, grading, assessment, structure and content. The format of the QIPs was agreed with universities and colleges, and they replace the now outdated Qualification Guides.
The QIPs include additional UK, EU, and international qualifications. The new UK QIPs added in July 2017 are mainly for new vocational qualifications, introduced as a result of changes to school performance tables. We’ve also included more EU/international qualifications, international GCSEs, iGCSEs, and international AS and A levels.
We would like to know if QIPs are a helpful resource. If you have any suggestions or feedback, please email Jochen Pichler, Senior Policy Executive at j.pichler@ucas.ac.uk.
Unpacking qualification reform – UCAS A level survey
The introduction of the decoupled AS in England has led to considerable speculation about how secondary schools and colleges might alter their 16-19 curriculum. To find out how the secondary sector is responding, we undertook a survey of all our registered English schools and colleges to identify their current position. Read the results – Unpacking qualification reform - results of the UCAS A level survey January 2015.
January 2016: following the report above, Unpacking qualification reform: UCAS AS and A level survey – January 2016 provides an update regarding AS and A level provision being offered by schools and colleges in England.
Qualification provision survey 2017
We have broadened the scope of our previous AS and A level survey to encapsulate a wider range of provision, such as GCSEs and vocational qualifications. The purpose of this is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how schools and colleges in England are responding to the wide ranging reforms.
We issued a survey to all schools and colleges in England registered to use our services between November 2016 and January 2017 – view the findings of the survey (2.39 MB).
Qualification reform statements
A number of higher education providers have released statements explaining how they will accommodate qualification reform.
- In England, Northern Ireland, and Wales, these tend to focus on A level and GCSE changes, but do cover the range of reforms.
- In Scotland, these explain how a particular university or college will accommodate the flexibility that the Curriculum for Excellence introduces.
Click below to see individual statements from higher education providers.
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Qualification reform statements
