Ofqual, the national school exams regulator, recently came up with a proposal to add a requirement for a piece of independent research by A level students who aspire to university, & now the Secretary of State for Education has decreed that universities should have more say in the A level system to make the exams into a better preparation for undergraduate study.
This sounds a lot like the old S level exam which we took – a relic of the previous system under which only those who passed Scholarship exams as well as A levels got a full maintenance + fees grant for university.
By my time it was called Special Level & I don’t think it was compulsory or conveyed any financial benefit since anybody who was accepted for a place at university got their fees paid & a (means tested) grant for maintenance.
We took extra lessons, & an extra exam, in just one of our A level subjects, & also pursued a piece of independent research which I do not remember being subject to any external assessment.
I now find that that system came to a final end only in 2001.
The wheel turns.
