In England, examinations for general qualifications (GCSE, AS and A level) were cancelled in summer 2020 and summer 2021 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and replaced with contingency measures involving teacher judgements. For summer 2020, the intention was to calculate grades using rankings provided by centres, prior attainment data for the…

There has been a period of intense policy change involving GCSE examinations in England, proposed partly in response to schools using tactics to maximise performance against accountability measures. The reforms included a change to linear rather than modular entry, removing partial re-sits, and limiting early and multiple entry to examinations by…

In England, students obtain General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) qualifications, typically at age 16. Certain GCSEs are tiered; students take either higher-level (higher tier) or lower-level (foundation tier) exams, which may have different educational, career and psychological consequences. In particular, foundation tier entry, if…

Since the late 1970s, the Access to Higher Education (Access to HE) Diploma (the Diploma) and its predecessor Access to HE certificates and courses have provided opportunities for adults to undertake the preparation they need to progress to higher education (HE). The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has been collecting data…

The ways in which examination standards are conceptualised and operationalised differently across nations has not been given sufficient attention. The international literature on standard-setting has been dominated by the psychometrics tradition. Broader conceptualisations of examination standards have been discussed in the literature in England,…

This study compared models of assessment structure for achieving differentiation across the range of examinee attainment in the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examination taken by 16-year-olds in England. The focus was on the "adjacent levels" model, where papers are targeted at three specific non-overlapping ranges of…

'Increasing Pupil Motivation' was designed to improve attainment of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) by providing incentives to increase pupil effort in Year 11. Two schemes for incentivising pupil effort were implemented. The first provided a financial incentive, where pupils were told they had £80 ($110.66) at the beginning…

This paper reviews recent research that has questioned the efficacy of using what has been defined as "policy with regards to student motivation" to enhance retention and achievement among vocational students. This research examined the contradictions between GNVQ and AVCE policy and the student perceptions of these courses at two…

This bulletin deals with current assessment procedures for the Certificate of Pre-Vocational Education (CPVE) and discusses changes in CPVE assessment that are currently being considered by Great Britain's Further Education Unit. The first section discusses the reassessments of the CPVE profile's core competence statements and the CPVE preparatory…

Describes problems encountered by a British basic skills accreditation initiative and teacher certification program, both of which used competency-based assessment. (SK)

Certain issues are relevant to the international recognition of vocational qualifications: (1) the assumption that each country does or should value vocational education and training; (2) the quality of the national system and the implications for international recognition of qualifications, including recognition of the accrediting and awarding…

This report presents papers on the vocational qualifications systems in Sweden, France, the Netherlands, the Federal Republic of Germany, and England and Wales. An introduction (Russ Russell) looks at common themes. The paper on Sweden (Gun Cardell) addresses vocational education opportunities, curriculum and standards, costs, youth and…

A project examined how General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) are evolving and how far their development is in line with the objectives originally set out for them by the government. Information was collected from institutions in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which began offering GNVQs in 1993-94. The survey examined the five…

An initiative was undertaken to develop cooperation with higher vocational qualifications between two "new" universities that were formerly polytechnics: City University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (UNN) in England. The higher vocational qualifications were the Higher Diploma (HD) from CUHK and the…