Our qualifications system has its roots in the mid-nineteenth century when universities decided to get involved in judging the academic standards being achieved in schools and by candidates for university admission. The university-led exam boards became the basis of a national system, beginning with the School Certificate. Grading of qualifications started in the 1970s.
Throughout this history, a key theme has been the desire of universities to make good selection decisions, especially in relation to over-subscribed courses. Whenever selective universities and courses have become concerned about their ability to discriminate fairly and accurately between good candidates, changes to qualifications or grading have followed.
So it isn’t a side issue that there is now an indefensible divergence in the standard of A levels between England on the one hand and Wales and Northern Ireland on the other. Proportionately, 57 per cent more A*s were given this year in Wales and 41 per cent more A* and A grades in Northern Ireland than in England.
To put this another way: if the Wales and Northern Ireland grade profiles had been the same as England’s, then in both countries over 37 per cent of A levels graded A* or A would have been downgraded. On reasonably plausible assumptions, the proportion of students in Northern Ireland getting the 3 A grades needed for medicine might be twice that in England.
