Government hands control over A-levels to universities to raise the bar on entry

Michael Gove, the education secretary, is to hand universities the leading role in the design and development of A-level qualifications in a major rolling back of government control over the key qualifications driving university admissions.

Ofqual, the examinations regulator, has published a letter to its chief executive, Glenys Stacey, from the education secretary in which Gove (pictured) says he is increasingly concerned that current A-levels – though they have much to commend them – fall short of commanding the level of confidence “we would want to see”.

Gove said: “Leading academics tell me that A-levels do not prepare students well enough for the demands of an undergraduate degree. I would therefore like to see universities having a far greater involvement in the design and development of A-level qualifications than they do at present.”

This represents a major shift away from government control of assessment, and universities will now be tasked with solving two problems they frequently complain about: first, that so many students now get high grades that it has become difficult to distinguish between them when deciding whom to admit; and second, that when they get to university too many students lack the requisite skills to study at undergraduate level.

Currently around one in four A-level candidates achieves an A grade.

Underlining the commitment to university influence, Gove said that before qualifications are accredited, awarding organisations should be expected to provide both evidence of those universities that have engaged in the development of the qualifications, and details of those that support the specifications and associated assessment materials, with a particular emphasis on the “best, research-intensive universities”, such as those represented by the Russell Group.

Universities should be involved both when qualifications are developed initially and following each examinations cycle, so that universities’ influence over the qualification develops over time, he said.

He is keen to see Ofqual take a leading role in creating a form of post-examination review to ensure lessons are learned for future development.

The education secretary said that Ofqual should consider what evidence an awarding organisation should be required to provide to demonstrate the appropriate level of university endorsement. He expected the bar for this to be set high, to make sure university ownership of exams is “real and committed”.

He said: “This means that government must take a step back in order to allow universities to take a leading role. In future I do not envisage the Department for Education having a role in the development of A-level qualifications.”

He said it was more important that universities were satisfied that A-levels prepared young people to start their undergraduate degrees having acquired the right knowledge and skills, than that ministers should have influence over content and methods of assessment.

“I am particularly keen that universities should be able to determine subject content, and that they should endorse specifications, including details of how the subject should be assessed,” Gove said.

Gove said the process of rolling back government control must allow universities, not awarding organisations, to drive the system. Confidence in standards of content, assessment and grading would have to be secured with each subject but he did not want to see any subject artificially constrained by any concept of comparability between subjects.

Stacey said Ofqual welcomes the intention to give universities a larger role in the design and development of A-levels.

“We want A-levels to be the best possible preparation for young people’s futures. We have spoken to employers, those in schools and those in higher education, and they tell us that A-levels need to cover sufficient depth and breadth so that students can hit the ground running when they go on to the next stage of their lives,” she said. “We think that universities have a big role to play in making sure they do.”

But Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, criticised the heavy influence being given to universities. Exams were designed not just for university entrance but for a wide range of purposes, including employment, she said.

“Of course universities have a useful role to play in deciding what should be tested at A level, but A-levels need to test more than just the ability to go to university. A-levels need to test students’ skills and help prepare them for the world of work and daily life as well as to study further.

She said universities should have a part to play in exam design but should not dominate what they are all about.

Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “I fear that some of Mr Gove’s concerns are based on an unrealistic expectation of what an examination can accomplish. Academic achievement is not synonymous with employability skills, and a good education must provide both. I have doubts over whether universities are better placed than awarding bodies to undertake the highly complex task of setting examinations for many thousands of 18-year-olds, or indeed would wish to do so.”

Bousted was critical of the current focus on written examination in A-levels. Most other developed countries, have exams, yes; but they also have course work and oral work, and test a wide range of skills.

“We hear all about the need to produce young people who can investigate and problem solve. But written exam can’t tests aspects of competences such as whether you can conduct an experiment, or communicate by speech,” she said.

Questioned about the nature of changes universities would seek to make, Dr Wendy Piatt, director general of the Russell Group, representing 24 of the best-known research universities, told the BBC: “If we had the opportunity we would like to shape A-levels to reduce the number of resits, to reduce modularisation and to beef up some of the components.”

Interviewed on the BBC’s Newsnight current affairs programme, she suggested universities would be looking critically at the number of resits that students are allowed to take to get the grades they need, pointing out there is a link between those students who took their modules several times and those who then go on to fail parts of their degree courses.

She said universities are also worried about the way modularisation allows school students to be assessed on a small chunk of the curriculum, since they could learn to forget that information rather than being able to assimilate all of those pieces of learning in an assessment after a longer period of time. “That does undermine their ability to think critically and independently,” she said.

She said universities would want to beef up some content requirements. “We want to make sure maths A-level and phyics A-level include some components that are vital [to] enable students to succeed in physics and engineering degrees,” she said.

But she said that although the high number of A grades achieved does cause universities problems the previous government had introduced the A* grade to pick out very top performers, and the extended project, which students can use to demonstrate their ability to think independently.

The UK has some 140 higher education institutions, and the Russell Group is the UK's equivalent of the Ivy League, leading to concern that A-levels might be skewed to suit the élite research-intensive universities it represents and their students – at the expense of the rest.

Pam Tatlow, chief executive of million+, the think-tank representing 26 universities that cater to a broader spectrum of students, said: “This is a much more complex task than simply getting a few academics together...

“At a meeting with representatives from across higher education ministers were advised very clearly that universities did not consider that the A-level system was ‘broken’. Education ministers appear to have ignored this advice...”


Comment

It is bad enough that both the previous and current governments think that universities exist to provide skills for industry, but now they think that we also have the time, capacity and skills to educate secondary school students, not to mention that they think secondary school and A-levels are just about university entry requirements.

Complete rubbish, all of it.

Sara Rich Dorman posted this comment on the University World News Facebook page.

Comment

Whenever I see something that starts with 'Michael Gove, the education secretary, is to......' my heart sinks. You just know it isn't going to end well.

Denny Colledge posted this comment on the University World News Facebook page.