Mike Tomlinson: Should A-levels be the basis for higher education
From a speech by the A-level inquiry chairman to the annual conference of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority
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Compared with the A-levels of some 30 or so years ago, when they were almost exclusively concerned with providing higher education with a means of selecting students for degree courses and were taken by a relatively small proportion of the cohort, things have changed. Quite properly we now want mass participation in post-16 education. Many students (currently the majority) do not proceed to university.
Can a single "system" meet the two demands: one to provide universities with the information they need, and two, to certificate a wide range of achievement much of which will not lead to higher education immediately?
We have to consider seriously whether actual A-level results should be the basis for higher education entry, rather than predicted grades being the basis for a provisional offer.
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