Ucas warns some students may be disadvantaged by A-level changes

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/16/ucas-warns-students-disadvantaged-a-level-reforms

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Ucas, the organisation that handles British university admissions, is warning that some students applying for places may be disadvantaged by the uneven and confusing wave of A-level exam changes taking place later this year.

In a survey of 500 secondary schools, Ucas found many unsure how to respond to the A-level changes in England, which strip out AS-level exams as part of A-level grades and introduce a series of new two-year linear exams from September this year until 2017.

Ucas warned that the mixture of new and old-style exams, some including modular AS-levels and some not, will not be over until 2020.

“Universities and colleges should review their admissions practices in light of qualification reform happening around the UK to ensure that students are not disadvantaged as a result of curriculum choices made by their schools or colleges,” Ucas recommended to universities as part of its analysis.

Mary Curnock Cook, Ucas’s chief executive, said: “Responses to this survey paint a picture of a high level of uncertainty and anxiety among schools and colleges, and a wide range of responses to the A-level reform.”

Curnock Cook admitted: “The admissions environment is further complicated by the divergence of A-levels and GCSEs across the UK.” Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will sit for different qualifications with the same name but varying assessment arrangements and structures.

A quarter of the 500 schools that responded said they were likely to enter pupils for fewer A-level subjects than previously, while the changes led one school to complain: “It is particularly difficult to know what advice to give our students and staff – there is no clear voyage through at present and this needs to be addressed in the interests of young people.”

Another school leader told Ucas: “We are now in a position where no one seems to know exactly what will happen.”

A majority of schools told Ucas they planned to snub one of the Department for Education’s changes – the “decoupling” of A-level and AS-levels, meaning that AS-levels no longer form part of a two-year A-level course.

The DfE’s aim was to place more emphasis on the two-year-long course and its final exam, uninterrupted by an AS exam in the middle. But two-thirds of the schools surveyed by Ucas said they would continue to enter pupils for AS-levels, even though they will become a standalone exam.

One school leader told Ucas: “It is highly likely that students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be put off taking A-levels. The AS has acted as a great confidence boost if GCSE grade profiles are weaker.”

A DfE spokesperson said the removal of AS-levels was intended to allow students the time to study subjects in greater detail.

“By decoupling the AS-level from the A-level, we are ending the routine of automatic, external assessment of students at the end of Year 12. Removing this unnecessary burden from teachers and students means young people will have more time to study the fundamental concepts of a subject rather than sit through an endless treadmill of exams.

“Students will still be able to sit an AS before deciding whether to take a subject at A-level, but will no longer be required to do so by the government, instead the decision will lie with students and teachers,” she said.

Some universities such as Cambridge argued that AS-levels should be retained because of their value in the admissions process, while many schools said that university admissions was a top priority in their decisions over which exams to enter pupils for.

Ucas said universities would need to be clear and transparent in their entry requirements.

Pam Tatlow, chief executive of the universities thinktank million+, said: “The results of this survey confirm that the AS is valued by schools as well as universities. Some of the reforms to A-levels supported by the Government ignored the views of education providers and students. An early decision by the next government to restore AS qualifications is likely to be welcomed by teachers and by universities.”