Oxbridge plans to accept Diploma

BBC updated on Friday, 21 November 2008


The universities of Oxford and Cambridge are to accept a Diploma qualification in their admissions.

The engineering advanced Diploma will be accepted for engineering degree courses beginning in 2010.

Applicants will also need to have a physics A-level, but it will still be seen as a step forward for Diplomas.

Schools Minister Jim Knight said it showed that students taking the Diploma "will be able to study at any university they choose".

The Diploma qualifications are intended to provide both vocational and academic courses for teenagers.


Competing qualifications

The take-up of courses has been lower than expected - with only 11,500 students, aged 14 to 19, beginning the first wave of Diplomas this autumn.

The advanced level of the Diploma, so far taken by about 1,400 students, is intended to be an equivalent level of difficulty to A-levels. The most popular advanced level course so far has been creative and media.

Geoff Parks, director of admissions at Cambridge University, said the advanced engineering Diploma is an innovative qualification which would help to broaden the appeal of the subject.

Dr Parks says that he has been "quite heavily involved" in the development of the qualification.

A statement from the university says the new Diploma "differs significantly from other qualifications we accept".

"The proportion of examined content is lower and there is great freedom in the exact nature of the topics that can be studied in the extended project and the principal learning units.

"This will lead to a wide variation in exactly what the qualification covers," said the university.

This is the first Diploma to be accepted in this way by Cambridge, with a spokeswoman saying that other subjects will be considered "on a case by case basis". The Diplomas were first considered as an eventual successor to A-levels - but the proposals from Cambridge will require Diploma students to also include an A-level in physics.

Earlier this week, David Collins, president of the Association of Colleges, said there would need to be changes to the Diplomas to reduce the "operational complexities" if they were going to be taken by large numbers of students.

Dr Collins also warned that the introduction of Diplomas should not be allowed to damage the existing post-16 qualifications.

This is an increasingly crowded marketplace. Although the A-level still dominates, students are also being offered a "Cambridge pre-U" qualification, aimed at university entry for high-flying students.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is also piloting a vocational career-related certificate (IBCC) which will offer a vocational dimension to academic subjects.