For the past few years there have been decreases in the average real per-pupil funding for secondary schools (Belfield, Farquharson and Sibieta, 2018). One possible impact of these cuts is a reduction in the number of different subjects or qualifications offered by schools. The main aim of this research was to investigate whether there was…

The aim of this research was to determine the standard that was effectively applied to General Certificates of Secondary Education (GCSE) and A levels in June 2020 by the decision to accept the maximum of the centre-assessed grade and the calculated grade. The data for this analysis came from the results tables for GCSEs and A levels in 2019 and…

In 2010, the government announced their latest drive to raise the status of vocational qualifications in secondary education. This overhaul was subsequently enacted based on recommendations made by Alison Wolf in her review of vocational education. As a result, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced four new categories of vocational…

Candidates taking a reformed (decoupled) Advanced (A) level may follow an 'Advanced Subsidiary (AS) + A level' route in that subject, taking the decoupled AS level, usually in Year 12, followed by the A level, usually in Year 13. Alternatively, they may follow an 'A level only' route. The research described in this report explored whether there…

This report presents findings from two studies on Advanced Subsidiary (AS) level trends in 2018. The first part of the report describes national trends in AS level entries from analyses of data published by Ofqual. This updates the previous quantitative analysis of AS level trends in 2017 (Vitello & Williamson, 2018). The rest of the report…

This report presents findings from an ongoing research project monitoring the impact of the Advanced Subsidiary (AS) and Advanced (A) level reforms in England that came into effect from September 2015. Three studies were conducted in the spring of 2017, during the second year of teaching of decoupled AS and A levels. The first study analysed…

This report investigates the progression of students from General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) to A level; that is, the proportion of students who go on to take an A level in the same (or related) subject. Progression rates are presented by GCSE grade, and student gender. In addition, the report looks at the relationship between GCSE…

This report presents research on a cohort of Level 3 Cambridge Technicals students (19095 'unique' students) that were sent to the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) to be tracked against the 2017 cycle year for the undergraduate scheme. Information on these students was extracted from Oxford, Cambridge and The Royal Society of…

This report looks at the uptake of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (and IGCSE/International GCSE) subjects in England in 2017. The data for these analyses was taken from the National Pupil Database (NPD). This is a database held by the Department for Education, consisting of results for all students in all subjects in schools and…

This report looks at the provision of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) subjects in England in 2017. The data for these analyses were taken from the National Pupil Database (NPD). This is a database of results for all students in all subjects in schools and…

This report looks at the uptake of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)) subjects in England in 2016. The data for these analyses was taken from the National Pupil Database (NPD). This is a database held by the Department for Education, consisting of results for all…

This report is an updated version of an analysis undertaken last year (Gill, 2017) which looked at the impact of the introduction of new accountability measures (Attainment 8 and Progress 8) on the qualifications and subjects taken by students at the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4). It adds in data from the 2016/17 academic year, which was the second…

This report looks at the provision of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) subjects in England in 2016. In this report the level of provision is presented by different school classifications: school type, school attainment, school gender, school size and school…

This report looks at the uptake of General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) (and International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE)) subjects in England in 2015. The data for these analyses were taken from the National Pupil Database (NPD). This is a database held by the Department for Education, consisting of results for…

The recent introduction of new accountability measures in English schools, such as Progress 8, may have had an impact on the qualifications and subjects taken by students and offered by schools in England. The main headline measure by which schools are judged has been changed from the proportion of students achieving 5 or more GCSE grades A* to C…