Standards in unitised qualifications

The great increase in the number of qualifications that are unitised has been a feature of the last few years. Instead of facing a single assessment or examinations at the end of a lengthy course, learners are able to undertake assessments at the end of each section or ‘unit’along the way. This approach, which is sometimes called ‘modular’, has many benefits for learners such as providing the information they need to find out how well they are doing while there is still time for them to improve. It also reduces the number of candidates who have nothing to show for their years of work if they fail the final assessment or overall qualification.

Many vocational qualifications – including those required for entry into the professions – and many university degrees are built up over a lengthy period. AS and A levels have been successfully unitised for some years and there is now considerable experience of this approach. GCSEs are moving in the same direction. In addition the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) comprises units that can be combined into qualifications, providing students with the flexibility to manage their learning as best suits their circumstances. Most qualifications, therefore, look set to follow this pattern in future.

The need to maintain standards across a unitised structure does, however, pose a particular challenge for Ofqual, which has a legal duty to check that the qualifications it regulates:

• give a reliable indication of knowledge, skills and understanding
• indicate a consistent level of attainment (including over time) between comparable regulated qualifications.¹

In unitised qualifications standards are set at the unit level but the ultimate focus of candidates, users of certificates, society and regulators is on the standard of the whole qualification. We need to be confident that the qualification is more than the sum of its parts. How can we best assure ourselves of the standard of the qualification as a whole?

Ofqual has addressed this issue in a paper² presented to the Cambridge Assessment Conference in October. In the paper we explore several possible responses to the challenge posed by unitised qualifications:

• To maintain that it is impossible to ensure standards at the level of the qualification because all the standards are in the units (or modules or components). So the qualification standard is either redundant (if the qualification is the sum of its part) or unimportant. A regulator cannot accept this argument.
• To build the overall standard into the design of the curriculum and the syllabus. To an extent this is what the GCE and GCSE awarding organisations attempt to do when they develop specifications that meet the appropriate criteria and codes of practice.
• To try to reflect the standard in the structure of the qualification. This is a key feature of the QCF in which some units may be hurdles without which the qualification cannot be awarded.
• To intervene at the awarding stage, after the learner has completed the units but before he or she receives the result of the qualification, in order to adjust the overall grade. The paper offers a number of variations of this approach but they all involve the removal of the automatic relationship between the units and the overall qualification.
• To accept the results of the automatic process, identify the problem and put it right for the next round.

In considering how to respond to this challenge we must recognise that learners have a right to expect that they can act upon the information they are given about their performance in a unit. This is the essence of the unitised structure. So any attempt to modify the results after the earners have been given that information must be unacceptable.

Nevertheless, Ofqual must be in a position to assure users – learners, providers and employers – that the qualification as a whole represents achievement of the content, level and size indicated by its title. How is this to be achieved?

My position is that all the organisations involved, not just qualification awarding organisations, have a duty to maintain the standards of the qualification as a whole. Before an organisation is recognised, whether to award single units or whole qualifications in any capacity, it must satisfy us that it has the ability and capacity to maintain standards – not just of the particular unit for which it is directly responsible but as a contributor to the qualification as a whole. Unit submitting organisations³must be able to show that they can write good-quality units of assessment at appropriate levels, with reliable credit values and clear learning outcomes and assessment criteria. They must also demonstrate that their units will define and maintain the overall standard of the qualification the learners will achieve at the end of their studies.

In the same way organisations that are submitting rules of combination will need to show that their processes clearly define qualifications that will be valuable to learners and to employers, with meaningful titles that accurately reflect their size, level and content. Organisations undertaking the assessment must also show that they have appropriate assessment and awarding processes that contribute to the award of a qualification that is at the stated level.

The same is true for modular qualifications in GCSEs, AS and A levels and many vocational qualifications where a single awarding organisation is responsible for the whole qualification. Ofqual’s position is clear: once the award of the unit has been made it must be honoured. It would be unfair to the learner if changes were made solely to bring the spread of grades in line with what could be expected.

So I believe that the system itself must ensure that the aggregation of the credits or unitised marking scale marks a learner has gained will yield a satisfactory overall qualification. This reflects the spirit of decentralisation that underlies our approach to regulation (see Section 4). It is appropriate to place the onus of overall quality on those providing the component qualifications or units and initially to trust them to do so unless it is shown that that trust is misplaced.

The qualification awarding organisations and regulators remain responsible for overall standards and must constantly check that they are being maintained. The qualification awarding organisation will be expected to be vigilant in keeping all the awards it makes under review and identifying any that give cause for concern. These can be dealt with internally or through Ofqual’s monitoring and enforcement procedures, identifying any aspect that needs modification to bring it into line and alerting the appropriate organisation to take remedial action.

Unitised and composite⁴qualifications are here to stay. They represent a step forward in the openness they bring to the assessment process and they allow learners to take an active role in planning and managing their own learning. For awarding organisations and regulators they represent a challenge, but one that we must accept willingly. It is our duty to find ways of ensuring that all qualifications give learners a fair indication of their achievements.