Midland Examining Group

Midland Examining Group
Abbreviation	MEG
Formation	1985
Extinction	1998
Purpose/focus	Examination board
Headquarters	Cambridge, UK
Region served	England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Parent organization	UCLES

The Midland Examining Group (MEG) was an examination board, operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It offered a range of GCSE and Certificate of Achievement qualifications. It became part of OCR in 1998.

History

The board was one of a number of new 'examining groups' formed to develop syllabi for the new GCSE qualification, which was due to replace the GCE O Level and CSE qualifications in 1988. Thus, MEG was formed by the Oxford and Cambridge Schools Examination Board and Southern Universities' Joint Board for School Examinations GCE boards and the East Midlands Regional Examinations Board and the West Midlands Examinations Board CSE boards in 1985. Though this was not a merger and the boards remained technically independent of each other, the East Midlands and West Midlands boards, who stopped offering CSEs after they were phased out in 1987, now only operated as part of MEG, meaning they effectively ceased to exist as separate entities.^{[citation needed]} The Oxford and Cambridge and Southern Universities' Joint Board continued to offer A Levels independently.

Despite its regional name, schools were free to pick which exam board to use for their qualifications and MEG eventually set 30% of all GCSE qualifications taken each year^[1]. The board also wrote syllabi for the Certificate of Achievement (now Entry Level Certificate), aimed at students working below GCSE level.

In 1993, MEG became part of the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), though it retained its separate identity. Furthermore, UCLES's A Level division, the Oxford and Cambridge Examinations and Assessment Council (OCEAC), took over both the Southern Universities' Joint Board and later, in 1995, the Oxford and Cambridge Board. This meant that all of MEG's stake-holders were now owned by UCLES.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, UCLES announced 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 syallbi until they expired. The MEG name appeared on some, but not all, of the Summer 1999 exam papers, but the certificates for that year, and all subsequent exam papers, featured the OCR name only.

References

1. ^ UCLES | Corporate Information