Much of our work consists of monitoring individual qualifications and awarding organisations, as well as carrying out more general comparisons and investigations. These examine the qualifications industry and the effectiveness of current legislation.
Every investigation or study we carry out is publicly available. We also frequently publish papers that summarise and comment on the issues we discover.
We produce various statistical summaries and analyses, covering general and vocational qualifications, to help you understand the qualifications market.
We receive data for GCSEs, A levels and Advanced Extension Awards from the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ). We collect data for all qualification types, except GCSEs, A levels and Advanced Extension Awards, from all recognised awarding organisations each calendar quarter.
All statistical reports are published online for common use.
Where we feel that it is necessary we may hold inquiries into incidents that have a significant impact. Below are details of all our inquiries to date.
We run a number of research programmes, each of which can run over a number of years, to give us a greater insight into qualifications and assessments abroad as well as at home.
Our current research programme is a research project comparing the level of demand of A level examinations with equivalent qualifications in other countries.
It is each awarding organisation's duty to ensure it maintains the correct standards in the regulated qualifications it offers. We monitor awarding organisations by using a risk-based model that allows us to target specific awarding organisations or qualifications that we think may need intervention.
We have a range of monitoring procedures and in-depth audits. We publish the results of all these activities and give the organisations being regulated the right to reply.
We run the following monitoring and auditing programmes:
We have published an update on the changes to GCSEs.
Following the passing of the Education Act 2011, we are today…
Ofqual can today confirm that no further exam papers scheduled for…