Responses from over 300 schools and colleges to UCAS’ second report on attitudes to qualifications reform also revealed that half think there was not enough information about changes to qualifications when making decisions about their future provision.
When UCAS first surveyed schools in December 2014, 66% said they would continue offering the ‘de-coupled’ AS level in some or all subjects. That has risen to almost three-quarters in the latest survey, carried out in November last year.
And 59% of schools are keeping the standalone AS in every subject, where the results of the examination will not contribute to the overall A level grade.
Schools who responded explained they were keen to offer their students a broad curriculum, despite the AS not counting toward the final A Level mark as in the past.
The proportion not offering the reformed AS at all has also increased to 21% (from 16% in the first survey). Of these it is independent schools that are most likely to move to a linear A level curriculum, according the survey responses.
However, 64% of respondents said that they would review their curriculum and qualifications offer for 2017, when all the new A levels will be available in all subjects.
Mary Curnock Cook, UCAS Chief Executive, said: “A clearer picture is emerging with many schools and colleges planning to retain the diversity of the curriculum on offer. Many keeping the AS said it provided a useful measure of progress, and supported the prediction of A level grades for university applications.
“All this means that students will be applying to higher education holding a greater diversity of qualifications, and I am pleased to see more and more universities publishing clear statements about the how they intend using the new AS when making admissions decisions.”
Over 40 universities and colleges have so far published these statements detailing how they will ensure applicants are treated fairly in the changing qualifications landscape. These are available on the UCAS website.
Schools were also given the opportunity to share their views on the reformed A Levels and a range of responses are included in the full survey report.
The full results of the updated survey can be found in the consultations section of the UCAS website.
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Notes to Editors:
Between 2015 and 2017 all AS level subjects are being gradually ‘de-coupled’ from the A Level in England to make them standalone qualifications.
This means that it will not be until September 2018 that young people from England will be making university applications holding a full set of reformed A levels. Meanwhile, A levels from Northern Ireland and Wales remain in the 'stepping stone' AS/A2 format.
UCAS first surveyed over 2,400 English schools and colleges in November 2014 and received almost 400 responses. The full report of the survey ‘Unpacking qualification reforms’ was published in January last year.
The update in November 2015, which received 305 responses, aimed to discover if the curriculum landscape had changed in the first academic year where reformed AS levels were taught.
About UCAS
UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, is a charity and the UK’s shared admissions service for higher education. We manage applications from over 700,000 applicants each year for full-time undergraduate courses at around 380 universities and colleges across the UK.
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