Universities Warn A-levels Leave Students 'Unprepared'

Universities want A-levels to be more intellectually stretching and with less spoon-feeding from teachers, according to a study from an exam board. Cambridge Assessment, which runs the OCR exam board, found many lecturers believed students arrived unprepared for degree-level work. Three-in-five lecturers said their institutions ran catch-up classes.

Education Secretary Michael Gove has called for greater involvement from universities in A-level standards. Mr Gove has told exam regulators that the content and assessment of A-levels should be shaped by universities, working alongside exam boards.

Last week he told head teachers that exams should be conferred by "institutions of academic excellence such as our best universities".

Cambridge Assessment, a department of the University of Cambridge, carried out an 18-month study of what higher education wanted from the A-level system. Over the past two decades, the design and content of qualifications has increasingly become the domain of government-funded bodies”Mark DaweOCR exam board

Lecturers want "less predictable" A-level exams, fewer re-sits and questions which are more open-ended and which would make pupils think for themselves. The study showed that more than half of lecturers believed that newly arrived students were "unprepared" for studying at degree level.

The weaknesses were in areas where students had to think creatively for themselves - in academic writing, self-directed study and independent thinking. The study found that 60% of lecturers said that their institutions had to provide "additional support classes", often focusing on writing and independent learning skills.

Original source here.