Though this was not a merger and the boards remained independent of each other, the East Midlands and West Midlands boards, who stopped offering CSEs after they were phased out in 1987, now only offered exams as part of MEG, although they continued their other services such as in-service training, OFSTED inspections, and prison service education.

The operation and processing of the GCSE was shared out between the constituent boards with the Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Nottingham and Birmingham centres each taking responsibility for a number of the subjects offered.

The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board and Southern Universities' Joint Board each continued to offer A Levels independently.

In 1993, MEG became part of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), though it retained its separate identity.

[3][4] Following the government decision to establish "unitary" exam boards, UCLES announced in 1997 that it was, with the Royal Society of Arts Examinations Board, launching the Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR) exam board, which would take over running all UCLES (including MEG and OCEAC) and RSA qualifications in the United Kingdom from October 1, 1998, though it continued to use the old syllabuses until they expired.