From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

OCR (Oxford, Cambridge and RSA) is a British examination board that sets examinations and awards qualifications (including GCSEs and A-levels). It is one of Great Britain's five main examination boards: the others are AQA, Edexcel, the WJEC and the CCEA.

OCR is based in Cambridge, with offices in Birmingham and Coventry. It is part of the University of Cambridge UCLES ("Cambridge Assessment"), which operates in over 150 countries and will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2008.

OCR also operates the Mill Wharf Training centre in Birmingham, which provides educational training courses. However, OCR announced in 2006 that all but one of its offices in Birmingham would close later in the year and their work transfer to the OCR offices in Coventry or Cambridge.

The name OCR reflects the fact that, in December 1997, it was created through the amalgamation of the University of Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (founded 1857) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (founded 1873) with the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (founded 1858) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Examination Board and various other organisations (most notably the Midland Examining Group). The formation of OCR represented the culmination of more than a decade of corporate activity on the part of UCLES, activity that came about as a response to the policies of successive British governments towards public examinations and the provision of qualifications as well as moves to strengthen the regulatory framework.

The Midland Examining Group had been formed in 1985 as a partnership between UCLES, the East Midlands Examinations Board (EMREB), the West Midlands Examinations Board (TWMEB), the Southern Universities Joint Board (SUJB) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board (OCSEB) to develop the new GCSE examination, which was first administered in 1988 as the replacement for the O Level. The Oxford Delegacy of Local Examinations (UODLE) and the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examinations Board (OCSEB) were acquired by UCLES in 1995. The acquisition of RSAEB was completed in 1998 and brought a new range of qualifications and activities to the UCLES Group because RSEAB's principal activity was in vocational qualifications.

All the UK schools examinations and vocational qualifiations of the UCLES Group were transferred to OCR on 1 October 1998.

UCLES is a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge. Once, every UK exam board was linked to or was part of a British university. OCR is the only one left - by contrast, Edexcel is a commercial, profit-making company owned by Pearsons, the publishers.

• OCR website
• Cambridge Assessment website
• Mill Wharf Training