Examination boards in the United Kingdom (sometimes called awarding bodies or awarding organisations) are the examination boards responsible for setting and awarding secondary education level qualifications, such as GCSEs, and A Levels qualifications, to students in the United Kingdom.

Until the mid-1990s, academic exam boards and vocational accreditors were run very much as separate organisations. In more recent times, this distinction has been removed, with all the term ‘awarding bodies’ now being used.

Broadly speaking, the UK has always had two separate school systems: one for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and one for Scotland. As a result, two separate sets of exam boards have been developed. Here we will focus on the exam boards stemming from the United Kingdom.

1.         England, Wales and Northern Ireland

England, Wales and Northern Ireland have several exam boards, with schools and colleges able to freely choose between them on a subject-by-subject basis. Currently, there are five exam boards available to state schools:

•           AQA (Assessment and Qualifications Alliance)

•           CCEA (Council for the Curriculum, Examinations & Assessment)

•           OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations)

•           Pearson, under its Edexcel brand

•           WJEC (Welsh Joint Education Committee), under its WJEC and Eduqas brands

Though the exam boards have regional roots within the UK, they now operate across larger areas. The three boards based in England – AQA, OCR and Edexcel – offer all their qualifications across England with a smaller number in Wales (where no ‘homegrown’ qualification is available) and Northern Ireland (where the qualifications meet the regulator’s requirements). The Wales-based WJEC offers qualifications in Wales (mostly under its WJEC brand), England (nearly always under its Eduqas brand) and Northern Ireland (under either brand). Most exam boards offer a range of qualifications, though not all boards offer every qualification in every subject.

Schools and colleges have a completely free choice between the boards, and most schools use a mixture of boards for their GCSE qualifications, with a similar mixture existing at A Level. In addition.