Reporter 28/7/99: Proposed West Midlands Examinations Board Fund: Notice

Proposed West Midlands Examinations Board Fund: Notice

26 July 1999

1. In their Report dated 13 October 1997 (Reporter, 1997-98, p. 50) the Council brought forward proposals to establish a new company to be called Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR), which would then acquire the business of the Royal Society of Arts Examinations and Assessment Foundation (REAF), and to which it was intended to transfer the UK schools business of the Local Examinations Syndicate. The recommendations of the Report were approved by Grace 10 of 12 November 1997.

2. OCR was incorporated on 16 December 1997 and the acquisition of REAF's business was completed on 7 January 1998. The transfer of the Syndicate's UK schools business to OCR took effect on 1 October 1998.

3. The Midland Examining Group (MEG) was established in 1985 to administer the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) which was introduced in 1988 as a replacement for O Level. In March 1998 the trustees of the West Midlands Examinations Board (WMEB), one of the original partners in MEG and the only one which was still an independent body, agreed to become a subsidiary of OCR. On 17 March 1998 OCR became the sole member of the WMEB, which is itself a company limited by guarantee and a registered charity. With the transfer of the UK schools business to OCR, there is no longer an operational role for the WMEB and its trustees have agreed to transfer the net financial assets in the books of the WMEB, amounting to about £8m, to a Trust Fund, to be held in the name of the University and under the control of the Syndicate. The proposed fund would be analogous to that established when the East Midland Regional Examinations Board merged with the Local Examinations Syndicate (Reporter, 1993-94, p. 40). It has been agreed with the Trustees of the WMEB and the directors of OCR that the capital and income of the proposed fund should be available (i) to promote and develop examinations administered by OCR, (ii) to provide bursaries and prizes for students from the West Midlands area, and (iii) to provide bursaries for serving teachers in the West Midlands area in order to enable them to undertake a period of study leave attached to the Syndicate or OCR, to work on some aspect of educational development, particularly learning and assessment.

4. The Council have agreed to support this proposal; they are accordingly submitting a Grace to the Regent House (Grace 3, p. 928) for the establishment of a fund with the financial assets of the WMEB for the purposes outlined above.

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