Issued by: Ofqual

Awarding body faces £350,000 penalty for breaches that led to incorrect grades and reviews of marking failures that affected nearly 4,000 other exam papers.

Ofqual is to fine awarding organisation WJEC £350,000 in total for breaching exams rules in 2 separate cases - including one that meant over 1,500 students received the wrong GCSE grades on results day.

The 1,527 students who received the incorrect results had taken WJEC’s Eduqas GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition qualification in summer 2024.

WJEC had failed to adjust teachers’ marking of coursework – which made up 50% of the qualification – to ensure results were in line with national standards.

It subsequently found that, while 17,610 results did not need to be changed, 847 students received lower grades and 680 got higher grades than they should have.

The students who received the incorrect lower grades were eventually issued with the correct grade in October 2024. In considering Ofqual guidance, WJEC decided those who received the incorrect higher grades should keep them, to avoid unfairly penalising students who may have already used those results.

Ofqual is set to fine WJEC £175,000 for this case, caused by an error in WJEC’s external moderation of teachers’ marking.

In the second case, WJEC reported that between 2017 and 2023 it had allowed 3,926 exam papers, out of 120,094 reviews of marking across 38 Ofqual-regulated qualifications, to be reviewed by the same assessors who had originally marked at least part of them, breaking regulations.

In this case, WJEC will be fined another £175,000 for breaching its Conditions of Recognition concerning how it conducted ‘reviews of marking’.

One student had their grade increased in 2024 after a fully independent review of marking was conducted. In response to the incident, WJEC issued credit notes as financial compensation to schools and colleges, for all affected reviews, totalling just over £219,000.

Amanda Swann, Ofqual’s Executive Director for General Qualifications, said:

"Students must be able to trust that their results accurately reflect their performance, and what they know, understand and can do.

"These proposed fines reflect the serious nature of WJEC’s failures and our commitment to protecting the interests of students and maintaining the integrity of our qualifications system. This includes the requirement that GCSE, AS and A levels students are entitled to an independent review of their exam marks."

Ofqual’s enforcement panel concluded a fine was appropriate and also took into account several mitigating factors. These included that WJEC had admitted the breaches, fully accepted responsibility, taken steps to prevent the problems happening again, and engaged fully with Ofqual.

Ofqual has today published 2 Notice of Intention (https://shorturl.at/vCwvh) (to accept a settlement proposal) documents for each case against WJEC. The documents give more details of the cases and invite interested parties to make representations ahead of final decisions:

• Notice of intention to accept a settlement proposal - GCSE food preparation and nutrition, summer 2024 (https://shorturl.at/9rtgW)

• Notice of intention to accept a settlement proposal - Review of marking incident, 2017 to 2023 (https://shorturl.at/ln53s)

We continue to work closely with WJEC to ensure the mitigations they have put in place for this summer and subsequent exam series are effective.

Background information

Ofqual’s Taking Regulatory Action Policy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/taking-regulatory-action) sets out how it will use its powers to take regulatory action.

Tags

More Like This

Guide to GCSE results for England, summer 2024

Government brings exam records into 21st century

Young people across England ready for next phase of education

Thousands of young people secure place at top university choice

Ofsted sets out proposals for fairer education inspections and new, more detailed report cards

Single headline Ofsted grades scrapped in landmark school reform

Winners of 2023 Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education Announced

High Court Judgment: UCL fails in attempt to force students into complaint procedures