Universities Officer’s Report
Like Richard, I would like to welcome you back to school and I hope that the start of term has gone smoothly. Following the results in July, this summer has been very quiet on the university front although I expect that each of your schools will have its individual problems. However, there has not been anything that has been reported to me as a general problem. Over the summer I have been reviewing the admission requirements of the 50 universities most popular with IB applicants to gauge the level of equivalence between IB Diploma requirements and A Level, and to establish other key markers, eg the acceptance of Diploma Programme Courses, the Career-related Programme, the MYP e-Assessments etc. As expected the outcomes are varied, and although equivalence to A level is very good in relation to Higher Level requirements, each university has areas that we would want to see improved and so I will be contacting the universities during the autumn to follow up. If there are any specific issues that you would like to alert me to, please contact me.
To further strengthen our collaborative approach to university applications I will be starting a HE counsellors community later in the month; details will follow. However, one area I would like to alert you to is an announcement from Cambridge Testing, which provide pre-registration assessments for entrance to Cambridge University, admissions tests for entrance to Oxford University and entrance tests, particularly BMAT and STEP for other institutions. Cambridge testing has announced that the deadline for registering for their tests has been moved forward to 30th September with a consequent impact on the dates of the test. Please visit their website for full details: https://www.admissionstesting.org/news/view/admission-testing-arrangements-for-october-november-2022/
The IB global conference in The Hague will be held from the 6th to 8th October and IBSCA will have a meeting at the conference from 17:00 to 18:00 on the Friday afternoon. If you are planning to attend then I look forward to meeting with you during the meeting or more generally during the conference period.
Lastly, there have been some very positive reports on the value of a wider education which have referenced International Baccalaureate programmes. In particular, the Times Education Commission has recommended that the government introduces a ‘British Baccalaureate’ based on the Diploma and Career-related Programmes; The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has recommended scrapping A levels and replacing them with a new qualification at 18 that “would draw on and refine the principles that underpin the International Baccalaureate”; and the House of Commons Education Committee chaired by Robert Halfon has heard very positive evidence about the benefits of an IB education. We are pleased that Robert Halfon visited some IBSCA member schools to find out for himself how the Diploma and Career-related programmes were developing articulate, confident and skilled learners. These present a real opportunity for us to further develop the public understanding of an IB education this academic year.
Peter Fidczuk
Universities Officer, IBSCA