This article focuses on the contemporary and historical awarding bodies that set academic exams in state schools.
Broadly speaking, the UK has always had two separate school systems: one for England, Wales and Northern Ireland; and one for Scotland.
England, Wales and Northern Ireland have several exam boards; schools and colleges can choose freely between them on a subject-by-subject basis.
As universities had experience of offering qualifications, such as degrees, it was natural that they created the first exam boards.
It took over many of the Central Welsh Board's responsibilities, including running Wales's exam system.
The existing exam boards offered the GCE, alongside the Northern Ireland Schools Examination Council .
[11] As O Levels and CSEs had used different exam boards (except in Wales and Northern Ireland), new 'examining groups' were created.
It was not long before the GCE (A Level) boards and GCSE examining groups began to formally merge or enter into even closer working relationships.
UCLES then merged all its A Level boards together to form the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council (OCEAC).
[3] This left UCLES offering A Levels under the OCSEB name, GCSEs under the MEG name and some vocational qualifications under the UODLE name.
[23] This situation continued until 1998, when UCLES took over the vocational Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board.
Following the merger, it chose to use the name Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) for all its UK qualifications.
CIE started offering some qualifications to English, Welsh and Northern Irish state schools in 2008, though it later withdrew from this market when the reformed GCSEs and A Levels (examined 2017 onwards) were introduced.
Though it originally ran as an educational charity like AQA, the Foundation was taken over by Pearson in 2003 (and renamed simply Edexcel), making it the only British exam board to be run by a profit-making company.
Unlike the other boards, WJEC did not experience any major organisational changes and is still owned by the Welsh local authorities, though it operates independently.
For example, they sometimes offer qualifications jointly or share training materials for common parts of specifications.
The JCQ is made up of AQA, CCEA, City & Guilds, Edexcel, OCR, SQA and WJEC.