Exams shake-up 
‘threat to bid for 
equal aspiration’

Dr Mike Sewell, the director of admissions at the country’s top- ranked university, said it would be more difficult to assess pupils’ abilities if AS levels are scaled back and GCSEs are replaced with English Baccalaureate certificates at the same time.

He told the Yorkshire Post that top universities like Cambridge could consider setting their own admissions tests or raising the A-level grades needed in their offers to ensure they continue to attract the best students.

However, he warned this would make it more difficult to ensure pupils from all schools would aspire and apply to Cambridge.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is planning to separate AS-levels from A-levels, making it a stand alone qualification.

Teenagers taking A-levels will no longer sit exams after one year, and will instead be tested at the end of their two-year course.

In a visit to the region this week Mr Gove told pupils at Horsforth School, Leeds, the changes were being introduced because he was concerned that students were spending too much time being assessed and not enough time learning.

The new A-levels will be taught from September 2015, which is the same time that GCSEs are set to be replaced with new English Baccalaureate Certificates (EBCs).

Dr Sewell said AS levels at the end of the first year of sixth form play an important part in widening access to higher education as they allow universities to identify students with potential and they give pupils the belief that they could succeed at a top institution.

For the past year several Cambridge colleges have been working with schools across Yorkshire to raise students’ aspirations and help them to apply to the country’s top universities.

More than 500 students from the region’s sixth forms have attended workshops and events featuring Cambridge academics including the university’s vice chancellor Professor Sir Leszek Borysiewicz.

Dr Sewell said: “We want to remove as many barriers as possible which would keep people from applying. Our work with partner schools in places like Leeds, Wakefield, Barnsley and Kirklees is looking to destroy the myths that have built up over the years.

“One of the key ones, the further away we go from Cambridge, is students thinking they are not the ‘right sort of person’. But if these students have really good grades at AS level then we can say to them that Cambridge would be interested in them applying.”

Dr Sewell said the AS level was more relevant than GCSE as it showed how students had coped with a step change in education and how they were performing in a range of subjects.

Now he fears this information will be lost, making it more difficult for universities to assess students’ academic ability. The Government is not planning to scrap the AS level and students will be able to continue studying it as a separate qualification.

However, Dr Sewell said this could lead to an unfair situation where some students were better placed than others because universities were able to see how some had performed in sixth form. He also warned about the impact of the Government planning to reform both GCSE and A-levels at the same time.

“It will be hard to get a reliable picture of a student’s ability when there is such a churn happening.”

Dr Sewell said that setting an admission tests or asking for higher A-level grades would be options for Cambridge if AS levels were scaled back. However he added: “You can see how such steps could be a real barrier to participation for some student groups.

“The university has of course begun the process of considering all options available to us, so that we may continue meeting our goal of admitting the best and brightest students from all backgrounds.

“However, we are clear that the best way of achieving this is for the Government to retain public examinations at the end of year 12.”

Cambridge launched its HE+ project in several regions of the UK including Yorkshire in 2011/12. It aims to prepare students better to apply to selective universities through student workshops with liaison officers and subject masterclasses which are delivered by Cambridge academics.

Two Yorkshire consortiums took part in the initial pilot project in Kirklees and Rotherham.

Schools and colleges taking part in Rotherham included Thomas Rotherham College, Maltby Academy, Wickersley School and Sports College and Aston comprehensive. In Kirklees, Cambridge has been working with Greenhead College and New College in Huddersfield, Brighouse High School, Heckmondwike Grammar, Rastrick High School and St John Fisher High School in Dewsbury.

Cambridge colleges are also working with schools in Leeds, North Yorkshire, Sheffield and Wakefield in outreach work.

Announcing the A-level reform last week Mr Gove said: “It seemed to me that one of the most effective ways we could encourage the sort of deep thinking that we want to have in people, not just who are going on to university but who are going to be entering an increasingly testing and sophisticated world of work, was to move towards a linear A-level.”