Widening participation in Higher Education crucially depends upon recruiting more young people from vocational pathways. But what sorts of opportunities do such learners access in Higher Education? Do these offer real opportunities for increasing social mobility and raising earnings? Is there any parity of esteem between academic and vocational progression routes? What are the challenges that students from more vocational programmes face when they enter Higher Education? How can we better support their learning and so improve success rates?

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Interpreting test performance (against the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) in this case) is at the heart of test validity. Thus if CEFR alignment is important for an exam, it should impact every relevant stage of design and administration. It cannot be a one-off exercise. Cambridge ESOL's approach will be presented as an illustration of this. We will also present the SurveyLang project coordinated by Cambridge ESOL, due to deliver the European Survey on Language Competences in 2011.

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This seminar will trace the history of investigations into inter-subject comparability in England, aiming to shed light on implicit and, occasionally, explicit statements of principle. It will analyse the emergence of early implicit conceptions and will illustrate how potential alternative conceptions have largely remained unrecognised, despite their potential utility.

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Ofqual's regulation stretches from the early years through the key stages, GCSEs, A levels and diplomas to vocational and occupational qualifications. Ofqual monitors assessments, reviews standards and has a major programme focused on reliability. What has the regulator found in its regulatory work on the significant developments that 2010 has brought? How do the outcomes help Ofqual fulfil its mission to ensure that these assessments are valued and trusted by learners, users and the wider public?

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This presentation will review the design features to be taken into account if systems of assessment in which teacher judgement has a role are to be robust enough to meet the expectations of students, policy-makers and the wider public.

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This seminar examines the implications of international human rights standards for assessment practice.

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Good science courses provide plenty of opportunities for students to explore and develop their understanding of scientific ideas through practical work. It is often argued that, to encourage school practical work, the students’ practical skills need to be formally assessed by examination or coursework but is this really necessary and if so, what is the best way to do this?

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UCAS applications to UK Higher Education institutions, the number of A-levels awarded an A grade and high achieving students exceeding the minimum entry requirements are all on the increase. In this context, the increasing numbers of well-qualified applicants presents institutions with a real challenge: how can they choose between applicants in a way that is consistent, fair, transparent and predictive of their future academic success?

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New GCSE qualifications were introduced for first teaching in England, Wales and Northern Ireland September 2009. These new GCSEs included changes such as controlled assessment, unitisation and entry, aggregation and terminal rules. This seminar discusses

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Dr Mary Richardson, Centre for Beliefs, Rights and Values in Education, Roehampton University, considers the value of assessing Citizenship in the context of the findings from an empirical study conducted in secondary schools across England.

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