A Level Reform

This is a question that comes up every year, what to do about A levels:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-17595345

The proposal this time is to let University academics give the curriculum content. At the moment it is set by exam boards, who because they are in competition with each other have been seen to pride themselves on being the "easier" board. This has led to a drop in standards.

But the other problem is that letting Universities set the curriculum might end up making the courses even narrower, and a criticism today is that the subjects should broaden or to allow students to study more subjects. Universities would see the A level of "their" subject as being the feeder for their degrees and not aimed at someone who will stop studying the subject at that level and who needs a broader base.

The first year of degree courses is increasingly being used to provide a "what you should know by now" phase to the degree. This is unfortunate and must be disheartening for students who have already invested two years since school. Maybe two years is too long, the first year should be the broader base, and the second year is used to focus on the subjects the student then knows they want to study.