The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA;
Gaelic: ''Ùghdarras Theisteanas na h-Alba'') is the
executive non-departmental public body of the
Scottish Government responsible for accrediting educational awards. It is partly funded by the
Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate
The Scottish Government Education Directorates were a group of the civil service directorates in the Scottish Government. The Directorates were titled Children, Young People and Social Care; Schools; and Lifelong Learning. They were responsible ...
of the
Scottish Government, and employs approximately 750 staff based in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and
Dalkeith.
SQA is best known for the delivery of the annual diet of public examinations within Scotland for school pupils. SQA Higher examinations are the general acceptable level for entry to university, with
Scottish universities
There are fifteen universities in Scotland and three other institutions of higher education that have the authority to award academic degrees.
The first university college in Scotland was founded at St John's College, St Andrews in 1418 by H ...
usually requesting a minimum of 3 Highers, all above C level. However, a greater number of candidates of all ages participate in SQA specialist, vocational and higher education qualifications. SQA is accredited by the UK government to offer educational qualifications.
On 21 June 2021 it was announced that the SQA would be replaced following a review by the
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
. Despite such announcements, the SQA continues to function for the academic year 2021-2022 and, as announced 9 March 2022, the authority will not be replaced until 2024.
History
The SQA's functions and responsibilities are laid out in the
Education (Scotland) Act 1996 as amended by the
Scottish Qualifications Authority Act 2002. Until their merger, the two major Scottish examination authorities were the
Scottish Examination Board
The Scottish Examination Board (SEB), formerly known as the Scottish Certificate of Education Examination Board (SCEEB), was the academic examination board for Scottish schools from 1965 to 1997.
History
From their introduction in 1888 until 1 ...
(SEB) and the
Scottish Vocational Education Council
The Scottish Vocational Educational Council (SCOTVEC) was the awarding body for vocational qualifications in Scotland from 1985 until 1997.
SCOTVEC was established by the merger of the Scottish Business Education Council (SCOTBEC) and the ...
(SCOTVEC). The former issued the school-level examinations, then called Standard Grade, Higher Grade and
Certificate of Sixth Year Studies
In the Scottish secondary education system, the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS) was the highest level of qualification available to pupils from 1968 until circa 2000.
Overseen by the Scottish Examination Board (SEB), it was taken by st ...
(CSYS). A legacy of its two precursor bodies, the Authority's offices remain split over two sites, one in
Glasgow
Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...
and one in
Dalkeith.
Under a major reform of Scottish exams (the National Qualifications or "Higher Still" reforms), the CSYS was replaced with a broadly equivalent qualification called Advanced Higher. Some curriculum changes were also made to the Higher grade at this time. The introduction of the reformed examinations system was criticised in the press and by the government after a
series of administrative and computer errors led to several thousand incorrect Higher and Intermediate certificates being sent out. The crisis took several months to resolve, and several management figures, including the
Chief Executive
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Ron Tuck, resigned or were fired.
Scottish Candidate Number
The Scottish Candidate Number (SCN) (formerly SCOTVEC number) is allocated to pupils at school and in further-education colleges who undertake Scottish Qualifications Authority (formerly SCOTVEC or Scottish Examination Board) courses.
Qualification types
SQA has a statutory responsibility to provide public examinations for Scottish state schools, though these are also used more widely. It has a statutory responsibility to ''accredit'' vocational qualifications (that is formally scrutinise them and confirm that they conform to agreed UK criteria). None of its qualifications, still less its vocational qualifications, is protected by statute, but the Authority has a largely dominant position within all sectors of qualifications within Scotland. SQA awards are also exported to a number of countries including
China,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
and former Soviet republics and other countries. SQA also provides the licensing certification for many merchant navies throughout the world.
National Qualifications
A National Qualification (NQ) can take the form of
Standard Grades or National Courses.
Standard Grades have been in existence before the Higher Still reforms. There are three Standard Grade Levels: Foundation, General and Credit. They are normally set at age 14–15 (sometimes at age 16 for students whose birthdays are before May), usually when attending
High School
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
.
National Courses were introduced with the "Higher Still" reforms. There are seven National Courses: National 1, National 2, National 3, National 4, National 5, Higher, Advanced Higher. National Courses can be taken in a wide range of subjects, from the purely academic, such as
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Mathematics—to the purely vocational, such as
Accounting and
Mental Health Care
A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a ...
. They combine three National Units, each lasting 40 hours with a Course Assessment, normally taken at the end of a one-year Course in the early summer.
In addition to traditional National Qualification Courses, a new suite of "pre-vocational" courses entitled "Skills for Work" was rolled out. Primarily available at Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 levels, these prevocational courses, aim to give students an awareness of the workplace environment, the skills required for entry to an industry as well as generic employment skills. Each of these Courses is awarded on the
Scottish Qualifications Certificate
The Scottish Qualifications Certificate (SQC) is the successor to the Scottish Certificate of Education and the Record of Education and Training, and is the main educational qualification awarded to students in secondary, further, and vocational ed ...
.
Many faculties that provide
SQA National Courses also provide preliminary examinations, or
prelim exams
The use of the term Prelim (short for preliminary examination) generally refers to an examination that qualifies a student to continue studies at a higher level, and/or allow the student to comprehend their studies and see how prepared they ar ...
. These usually take place in January or February.
Reorganization of National Qualifications
According to SQA, all National Qualifications will be redesigned as follows in the future:
According to the SQA, the new qualifications have "more focus on skills development compared to the existing qualifications ... There is also a greater emphasis on
'deeper learning' by helping learners to think for themselves; to apply and interpret the knowledge and understanding they have developed and to demonstrate the skills they have learned."
National 1-4 will be assessed internally by the student's own institution, subject to regulation by the SQA. National 5 courses and above will also have a number of internal assessments, followed by an externally marked exam.
National Assessment Bank
Since the introduction of Highers, Intermediate 1 and Intermediate 2 courses, the SQA have also introduced a
National Assessment Bank
National Assessment Banks, commonly referred to as NABs after the National Assessment Bank from which these assessments are selected by teachers, are internal assessments that used to form part of the Scottish Higher and Intermediate courses. Th ...
of short examinations for each subject. These are more commonly known as NABs or unit assessments, and contain questions from specific academic units at a basic level. Each candidate must pass a certain number of NABs (usually three) before they can be presented for the final examination, although resits can occur with other NAB materials.
The National Assessment Bank materials are available for download as Word or PDF files on a secure SQA website. The only person who can enter the site is the SQA coordinator of each institution.
For national 4 and 5 courses NABs are usually taken 3 times throughout the session when units have been completed and appear on the candidates certificate as a unit pass even if the candidate does not pass the whole course e.g. "No award in national 5 english but passed a unit internally."
Release of results
![SQA results day](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/SQA_results_day.jpg)
Students for ''National Qualifications'' receive their results on, generally, the first Tuesday in August. Students signed up for the authority's ''MySQA'' system are able to check their record online throughout the year and get their exam results by text and/or email on the day that the results are issued. Those signed up to the service received their results one day earlier than the official postal results. This also occurred in subsequent years, however only due to a mistake by the company holding the results. In another incident, the SQA itself sent the results out on the right day, but
Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University, commonly called RGU, is a public university in the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It became a university in 1992, and originated from an educational institution founded in the 18th century by Robert Gordon (philanthropist), ...
's business school leaked whether students had been let in, and a technical error with
St Andrew's University
(Aien aristeuein)
, motto_lang = grc
, mottoeng = Ever to ExcelorEver to be the Best
, established =
, type = Public research university
Ancient university
, endowment ...
's website also leaked the results of applicants.
Due to the high volume of exam marking with the Scottish examination boards and those across the rest of the UK, where it is thought that exam marking inaccuracies may occur, there are each year a vast number of students requesting for an exam "re-mark". After the SQA introduced fees (which were exorbitant in many students' and parents' opinion), requests for exam remarking plummeted 55,000 students—a decline of 77%.
In order to fight (supposed) grade inflation within the Scottish education sector; SQA has introduced academically and cognitively more rigorous examination standards and stricter marking; this has resulted in strong criticism towards the SQA exam board and in decreases of exam pass rates of up to 15%.
National units and programmes
There are the many qualifications often imperfectly referred to as vocational, though these are frequently stepping-stones for students at Scottish Colleges of Further Education to pursue one- or two- year programmes tailored from a wide-ranging catalogue of National Units. The actual programme may be very rigidly prescribed by employers or be entirely freely chosen by the student to meet particular needs. The prescribed programmes may be recognised by a National Certificate or a Scottish Progression Award.
SVQs and modern apprenticeships
Scottish Vocational Qualification
A Scottish Vocational Qualification, or SVQ, is a certificate of vocational education in Scotland. SVQs are available to people of all ages. SVQs are developed by Sector Skills Councils, in partnership with industry and awarding bodies. After th ...
s (SVQ) are an award for
vocational education
Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational Education can also be seen as that type of education given to an ind ...
and training awarded by the SQA or other approved awarding bodies in conjunction with industry bodies. Scottish National Qualifications and Scottish Progression Awards are often important in a Modern Apprenticeship scheme along with SVQs. SVQs are developed by
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
employer
Employment is a relationship between two parties regulating the provision of paid labour services. Usually based on a contract, one party, the employer, which might be a corporation, a not-for-profit organization, a co-operative, or any othe ...
s in tandem with
National Vocational Qualification
National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) are practical work-based awards in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that are achieved through assessment and training. The regulatory framework supporting NVQs was withdrawn in 2015 and replaced by the ...
s (NVQ) for
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
and
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
.
SVQ are assessed in the workplace (or closely regulated training workshops) by employers, training providers or colleges approved and monitored by the SQA (or other awarding bodies) accredited by its independent ''Accreditation Unit''.
Higher National Certificates and Diplomas
Qualifications aimed at students in their first two years of
Higher Education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
include HNCs (
Higher National Certificate A Higher National Certificate (HNC), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is a higher education/further education qualification in the United Kingdom.
Overview
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the HNC is a BTEC qualificatio ...
s)—taken as a one-year full-time course or as a two-year part-time course—and HNDs (
Higher National Diploma
Higher National Diploma (HND), part of the Higher Nationals suite of qualifications, is an academic higher education qualification in the United Kingdom and various other countries. They were first introduced in England and Wales in 1920 alongsi ...
s). These qualifications are extremely popular in colleges, workplaces and community education centres in Scotland, the rest of the UK and throughout the world.
Students with disabilities
These include specific qualifications for those with severe to moderate difficulties (Access), the right to aid in completing assessments (for example, a scribe) and the right to challenge any unfair or artificial barrier in the rules for any qualification.
English as a second language
There is a suite of National Units addressing the needs of economic migrants, asylum seekers and (the biggest group) those seeking to master English before returning to their own countries. It has also developed qualifications for those seeking to teach English to refugees.
Partnerships
SQA is one of the four partner national organisations involved in the
Curriculum for Excellence
Curriculum for Excellence is the national curriculum for Scottish schools for learners from the ages 3–18.
It was developed out of a 2002 consultation exercise – the 'National Debate on Education' – undertaken by the-then Scottish Execut ...
. It works with partners on all strands of the development. Its principal role is to contribute to work on qualifications and assessment. SQA's role in Curriculum for Excellence is to design and develop the new qualifications and assessment.
SQA has joined with Universities Scotland,
QAA Scotland and the
Scottish Government to create the
Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is the national credit transfer system for all levels of qualifications in Scotland. Awards are classified under the framework at ''levels'', and study undertaken at that level is valued ...
or
SCQF
The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is the national credit transfer system for all levels of qualifications in Scotland. Awards are classified under the framework at ''levels'', and study undertaken at that level is valued ...
. Every Scottish qualification—from the Access level for those with learning difficulties to a Doctorate and including vocational as well as ESOL and BSL qualifications—is allocated a level and credit value within this framework, which all partners have agreed to recognise.
Controversy
2015 Higher Maths exam
The Higher Maths exam sat by students in May 2015 was said to be far too difficult. This evoked heated debates among students, teachers and educationalists; the corresponding grade boundaries for the respective exam were thus adjusted accordingly, with a pass mark as low as 34%. The SQA later admitted that one of their Higher Maths exam papers had been unusually hard and unfit for purpose.
2016 exams
Several exams that were set from the SQA in 2016 were criticised by pupils, parents, teachers and MSPs.
National 5 Maths exam
The National 5 Maths exam, sat on 12 May 2016, in particular Paper 1 (non-calculator), was also criticised by students after being considered much more difficult than previous years. A petition was created by students which was to be sent to the SQA demanding to know why the exam was exceedingly difficult, and it gained over 25,000 signatures.
National 5 Computing Science exam
Scottish Green MSP,
Ross Greer
Ross John Greer (born 1 June 1994) is a Scottish politician who has been a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the West Scotland region since 2016. A member of the Scottish Greens, he was the youngest MSP elected in the 2016 election ...
criticised the SQA for mistakes in the National 5 Computing Science exam and called for an investigation into the exam, he defended teachers and students who thought that this was the worst exam ever set by the SQA. The SQA later admitted that the exam had mistakes.
2018 exams
National 5 History exam
The SQA faced criticism for the 2018 National 5 History exam as the wrong date was given for the execution of
Mary, Queen of Scots
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567.
The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...
. While the SQA insist their mistake did not disadvantage any pupil, teachers disagree saying that the mistake meant that pupils second guessed their knowledge. The mistake was criticised by many including historian
Tom Devine
Sir Thomas Martin Devine (born 30 July 1945) is a Scottish academic and author, who specializes in the history of Scotland.
He is known for his overviews of modern Scottish history.
He is an advocate of the total history approach to the hi ...
, who called the error "unacceptable".
2019 exams
Certain exams set by SQA in 2019 have received widespread criticism from pupils, parents, and teaching staff within schools and colleges.
National 5 and Higher Biology and Human Biology exams
The National 5 and Higher Biology and Human Biology exams, which took place on 30 April 2019, received criticism from candidates on social media, and featured on national news. They claimed they bore no resemblance to previous papers, and relied too heavily on problem solving and mathematics skills as opposed to biology content. A petition was created by pupils, demanding that the pass mark be lowered. SQA defended the examinations, claiming that they were fair tests of the subject.
2020 exams
Due to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...
, the SQA cancelled the 2020 exam diet. This was the first time in SQA's history that all exams were cancelled. Grades were given based on results in preliminary examinations and predicted grades from teachers.
After pupils received their results on 4 August, it emerged that the SQA had moderated downwards 124,000 grades from up to 75,000 pupils. This received criticism from candidates, teachers and politicians in all political parties in Scotland.
The subsequent criticism was heavily featured on social media and national news.
On 11 August, it was subsequently announced during an emergency statement by the Scottish education secretary that the SQA would reverse all downgraded results, while leaving upwards moderated results in situ. The change's resulting unprecedented increase in year-on-year performance was said to be 'outweighed' by the concerns of those affected and the loss of faith in the system.
2021 exams
On 7 October 2020, due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the SQA announced that the National 5 exams for 2021 were to be cancelled, but Highers and Advanced Highers would still go ahead. However, on 8 December 2020, Scottish Education Secretary
John Swinney announced that the Highers and Advanced Highers would also be cancelled, meaning all SQA exams in 2021 would not go ahead, with grades for all levels being decided instead by teacher judgement.
2022 exams
After announcing in February 2022, that exams would be shifting to 'Scenario 2'.
On 7 March 2022, the SQA's guidance on the 2022 exams were leaked via Twitter. The content of the guidance was described as "woefully inadequate" and in many cases provided no clarification for what to expect in an exam paper.
References
External links
*
{{authority control
Education in Scotland
Organisations based in Glasgow
Qualification awarding bodies in the United Kingdom
School examinations
Qualifications Authority
Qualifications Authority
Higher education in Scotland
Vocational education in Scotland