The English Examining Boards: Their route from independence to government outsourcing agencies

245

From a surplus at 30 September 2000 of £3.71 millions, the board’s position had
moved to a deficit of £17.64 millions as at 30 September 2003. This led ultimately to
the closure of offices in Newcastle and Bristol, with resulting redundancies.

Similar financial pressures on the London board had led to the takeover by Pearson
described above, while OCR - as always able to rely on the financial strength of
UCLES - shows signs of withdrawing somewhat from the heavily regulated arena. An
OCR official hinted at considerable dissatisfaction when he suggested that the
regulatory body comprised “mostly the staff who ^,d been [there] and therefore were
finding it very hard to understand what regulation was about. In fact [they] never
applied regulation; they actually applied government direction!" This may explain his
saying that “now perhaps a little bit more than ever we ^,re back fully in the fold of the
university and I think that colours the views and outlook of the organisation" (OCR2
2003).

The Boards Destabilised: The wrong time for major change

By the end of the final decade of the 20^th century, the combined effects of these
external and internal pressures left the three unitary awarding bodies under severe
stress. Their professional autonomy had been significantly breached by increased
regulatory control, their organisational stability challenged by mergers, their financial
position weakened by unbudgeted costs. A necessary preoccupation with coping with
these various issues may have masked a full realisation of the extent of their loss of
control. It was at this low ebb in their history that they faced the greatest change to A
levels since they were created. At a point when their professional judgement was most

<<   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   >>

More intriguing information