The Joint Council for Qualifications commonly referred to as JCQ is a council acting as a single voice for the seven largest qualification providers in the UK offering GCSE, GCE

General Certificate of Education

The General Certificate of Education or GCE is an academic qualification that examination boards in the United Kingdom and a few of the Commonwealth countries, notably Sri Lanka, confer to students. The GCE traditionally comprised two levels: the Ordinary Level and the Advanced Level...

, AEA

AEA

-Companies:* AEA Investors, one of the oldest private equity firms in the United States* AEA Technology, a British company mainly specialising in environmental consulting* Audio Engineering Associates, a US company specializing in ribbon microphones...

, Scottish Highers, Entry Level, Vocational and vocationally-related qualifications: AQA

AQA

AQA could refer to or stand for:* aqa, the ISO 639-5 for the unspecified Alacalufan languages* Any Question Answered – an SMS message service providing the answer to any question, based in London, United Kingdom....

, City & Guilds, CCEA, Edexcel

Edexcel

Edexcel, a UK company, is one of England, Wales and Northern Ireland's five main examination boards, and is wholly owned by the private-sector Pearson PLC, a UK-based media and publishing conglomerate. Its name is a portmanteau word derived from the words "educational" and "excellence"...

, OCR

OCR

OCR may refer to:* Optical character recognition, conversion of images of text into characters** The OCR-A font, designed to simplify character recognition** The similar OCR-B font* Transvaginal oocyte retrieval, a technique used in in vitro fertilization...

, SQA

SQA

SQA may refer to:* Scottish Qualifications Authority* Software Quality Assurance or Software Quality Assurance Group* SQA Services, Inc....

 and WJEC

WJEC

WJEC is an examination board that provides examinations, assessment, professional development, educational resources, support for adults who wish to learn Welsh and access to youth arts activities...

.

About

The JCQ was established in January 2004 to supersede the Joint Council for General Qualifications (JCGQ, 1998–2003). The JCQ was formed to enable member awarding bodies to act together in:

• providing, wherever possible, common administrative arrangements for the schools and colleges and other providers which offer their qualifications;
• dealing with the regulators; in responding to proposals and initiatives on assessment and the curriculum
• dealing with the media on issues affecting all member bodies.

• help the awarding bodies to work together to create common standards, regulations and guidance
• help them to regulate themselves against those agreed standards as well as monitoring any exceptions
• provide a forum for members to discuss issues, with each other and partner organisations and the regulators
• ensure examinations are sat under consistent regulations

Regulations and Examination Practices

The JCQ provides rules and regulations concerning the exams. These include:

• Exam papers, secure downloads and on screen tests should be kept in a secure storage facility, accessed only by the head of the examining centre or by the exams officer
• Exams should start at 9.00am for morning exams or 1.30pm for afternoon exams. Exams shouldn't be started 30 minutes before or after the start time
• Exam candidates must be supervised at all times, including if they have clashes, extra time or an earlier time.
• Calculators must not contain any electronic facilities prohibited by the board
• All helpful material in the room must be removed, and a clock must be clearly visible to all candidates
• All accessible exam help must take place separately, if it may help other candidates or disturb the environment
• All candidates must be identified within the exam
• Only official stationary and answer booklets may be used
• No electronic or digital storage equipment can be used unless expressly stated on exam paper. This includes iPods and MP3/4 players, mobile phones and reading pens.
• Any such items taken into exam room must be at front of hall, or under candidates desk at very least.
• Pencil cases must be transparent.
• Any Food or Drink must be clear of packaging and labels
• Writing must be in black ink only
• All work, including rough must be in the answer booklet and clearly labeled
• Correcting pens, fluid and tape, erasable pens, reading pens and blotting paper are prohibited.
• Highlighters, Gel pens and coloured ink/pencils must not be used for answers
• Late candidates should be allowed to sit the exam, but a full report must be made
• Malpractice is prohibited, should be reported to the board immediately. The candidate may lose the right to sit that full exam.
• In the case of an emergency, candidates are to be escorted in silence to a safe location away from other candidates not sitting the exam.

Any malpractice, lateness, candidates leaving the exam early, disturbances should be reported to the board. A candidate's exam papers may then be cancelled in that exam, subject, or whole series.

External links

• Official website of JCQ