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What is OCR? A guide to the UK exam board
We take an in-depth look at one of the country’s most historic awarding bodies
As one of the UK’s main exam boards, OCR and its qualifications will familiar to many people.
A registered charity with its roots in the country’s most prestigious universities, OCR offers a host of GCSEs and A levels alongside more than 100 vocational qualifications.
What is OCR?
Owned by the University of Cambridge, OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations) is an awarding body that uses around 8,000 examiners and assessors to set, mark and moderate exams and assessments sat by more than 1 million candidates in the UK each year.
The organisation, whose CEO is Jill Duffy, operates in the UK as part of Cambridge University Press and Assessment, which is also a dominant provider of international and English language qualifications.
How long has it been in existence?
OCR, in its current form, was founded in 1998, although its history goes back much further.
The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES) was founded in 1858 to provide exams to people not attending the university. In 1995 it took over the functions of the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded in 1857) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (founded in 1873), which were both abolished.
It then merged with the vocational qualifications-focused Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board (RSAEB) to form OCR in 1998.
Find out more about OCR’s history.
What exams and subjects does OCR cover?
OCR offers GCSEs and A levels in more than 40 subjects. It was the only exam board charged with developing a new natural history GCSE, although the future of this qualification hangs in the balance because the Labour government is yet to commit to it.
OCR was also due to become the first UK exam board to offer an optional fully digital, high-stakes computer science exam this summer, although this plan has now also been delayed due to the change of government and the latest curriculum review.
The board offers 100 vocational qualifications, including Cambridge Technicals, for learners over 16, in subjects such as art and design, business, digital media, engineering, health and social care, IT and sport.
Has it been involved in any controversies?
There has been a series of question paper controversies involving OCR in recent years.
One notable mistake was in 2017 when a question in the reformed OCR GCSE English literature exam, taken by 14,000 students, swapped the surnames of the families in the play Romeo and Juliet, asking how Tybalt’s hatred of the Capulets influenced the outcome of the play. Tybalt is actually a Capulet.
OCR apologised, saying no one would be disadvantaged by the error, while Ofqual said it was “very disappointed” by the mistake.
In the same year OCR also apologised for “poorly wording” an A-level psychology paper before being asked to review all of its papers for further errors.
The board was eventually fined £175,000 for its error on the English literature exam.
More recently, in 2019 there was widespread dismay when it emerged that students needed to score just 13 per cent to pass OCR’s A-level maths.
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