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[Update 2nd April] Health Warning: If reading this on a day other than April 1st be warned. There was a vicious ulterior motive for this post. Happy April Fools and thanks for all your comments and links.

As of September 2008 UK Universities will no longer be accepting Psychology A levels as an acceptable A level says the BBC.

Professor Joe King from Durham University, who headed the Annual Conference of University Admissions (ACUA) yesterday, said that in relative terms the Psychology A level specifications throughout the UK (OCR, AQA and EDEXCEL) are not of comparative quality to other disciplines.

Record pass results have been seen in Psychology A levels over the last three years and this has provoked fears that the A level is not of the same standard and doesn’t demand the same achievement as other subjects, especially maths and science.

It is feared that over 5,000 students could be affected by this proposal resulting in already accepted conditional offers being rejected in September as a result of subject choice.

Lawyers for a group of students from Essex told us today that they will be petitioning Number 10, and failing this taking action to the European Court of Human Rights.

Further to discussions with the ACUA students will have little control over the decision of the committee as it is an independent committee with no watchdog to answer to.

Of the 18,000 students sitting Psychology A Levels this June it is thought that there will be no change to examinations or the specification content, however, the 26,000 students studying the AS modules could see massive changes over the summer vacation.

Oliver Duncan of NUS says that the proposal is a joke and that the ACUA have no jurisdiction in stating the content or assessment of A Levels as this is the responsibility of the Education Department.

Letters outlining the proposals have been sent to all institutions throughout the UK which teach Psychology.

Schools around the country have until April 33rd to appeal against the decision made by the ACUA. If more than two-thirds of schools do oppose the changes the proposal will have to be vetoed until the next time the committee sits in November.

See the BBC News coverage here. Your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: rant

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