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Is this 'soft’ education?

Comprehensives’ A level passes are improving, says Martin Allen. Is this why ‘new’ subjects are being denigrated?

Comprehensive schools have worked hard at building up their sixth forms, having to compete with selective schools, but at the same time cater for all their students. As staying-on rates increased – and with encouragement from government – they have introduced a succession of vocational alternatives. But these courses have failed to gain the status they deserve, with universities and even many employers not regarding them as equal to GCSEs, AS and A levels.

As pass rates in exams continue to rise, any sixth former with the required GCSE grades is likely to enrol for A levels. As a result, comprehensives have extended their provision, and new courses and new syllabuses have emerged. Today, 75 per cent of the 850,000 A level entries are from non–selective schools. Even though independent schools account for 50 per cent of A grades, comprehensives have closed the gap for Bs and Cs. A level, once only for the few, is now a qualification for the many. Making courses modular has also increased opportunities.

Whenever the educational playing field appears to be levelling, something seems to give. Mindful that A level is now common currency rather than the gold standard, some independents and a handful of state schools have dropped it, instead concentrating on the international baccalaureate or adopting the Cambridge Pre-U. Many ‘high performing’ schools that have retained the A level as their main provision hope they can use the new A* grade to place their students ahead of others in the queue for places at Russell Group universities.

It’s now clear that divisions between so-called ‘soft’ and hard A levels, which invariably coincide with divisions between ‘old’ and ‘new’ subjects, are becoming as important as divisions between academic and vocational qualifications. Cambridge University and the London School of Economics (LSE) both publish lists of subjects considered ‘less than ideal’. (see Downgraded, below left).

Cambridge advises students not to take more than one subject on the list as part of the three A levels normally needed to get a place. What’s also interesting is that the differences between applied (previously ‘vocational’) and academic versions of subjects like business studies have disappeared. Business studies is now a ‘B’ list subject.

The think-tank Policy Exchange, influential in Conservative Party thinking, provides extensive data on how leading universities view ‘soft’ subjects (see panel, right, for examples).

As significant is the way the data links certain types of subjects with certain types of school. For example 75 per cent of all A level examinations are taken in non-selective schools, but 96 per cent of law and 93 per cent of media studies entries are in these schools. Psychology is the third most popular subject, but only 6 per cent of entries are in independent schools.

The headmaster of Harrow accused state schools of conning students by handing out “worthless” qualifications

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How they see it

At Oxford, more students were accepted in 2007-08 with further maths A level (711) than accounting, art & design, business studies, communication studies, design & technology, drama/theatre studies, film studies, home economics, ICT, law, media studies, music technology, psychology, sociology, sports studies and PE, and travel & tourism A level combined (overall 494 of these subjects were accepted).

Biology, chemistry, further maths, maths and physics comprised close to half of all accepted A levels for Bristol and University College London.

More than three times as many economics A levels were accepted at Nottingham than sociology or drama and theatre studies.

More than four times as many French A levels were accepted at Warwick as law.

More than four times as many A levels were accepted in physics at Manchester than in media and film studies combined.

The hard truth about ‘soft’ subjects by Anna Fazackerley and Julian Chant. www.policy exchange.org.uk.

Downgraded

Cambridge: Accounting, art & design, business studies, communication studies, dance, design & technology, drama & theatre studies, film studies, health & social care, home economics, ICT, leisure studies, media studies, music technology, performance studies, performing arts, photography, PE, sports studies, travel & tourism