Following the announcement on 29 September from DfE and Ofqual, we can confirm we will be returning to pre-pandemic arrangements for all Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals assessments taking place during 2022/23. There will be no further adaptations in place. This means that the following arrangements will not be available for assessments taking place in 2022/23: 

• Unit level adaptations 
• Permitting students to complete assessment tasks from home
  
• Further adaptations for Cambridge Nationals in Information Technologies
  
• Reduction in assessment (see below for further details) 

Provisional timetables now available 

Following the announcement from DfE and Ofqual, we have now published the provisional June 2023 timetables. If you have any comments on the Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals timetables, please send your feedback to us at ocr.timetable@ocr.org.uk by 13 October 2022. 

Options for students who cannot sit an exam 

We can confirm that the updated JCQ arrangements for students who are absent from an exam or assessment will also apply to our Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals qualifications. Where students are due to complete their qualification, if they are absent from an exam or assessment for an acceptable reason in that series, they could receive a grade as long as they had completed at least one unit of a qualification. This replaces the previous requirement for students to complete at least 25% of a qualification.

Reduction in assessment from 2021/22 

Reduction in assessment was only available for moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22. All units planned to be assessed this year (2022/23) must be completed as normal – you cannot request reduction in assessment for units students are taking in 2022/23, or beyond. 

Cambridge Nationals (legacy) 

If you have candidates certificating in November 2022, January 2023 or June 2023, you must tell us if you are requesting a reduction in assessment for moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22. You will need to do this in the series candidates are certificating. 

Cambridge Technicals 

In April/May 2022, you informed us of the moderated units that were planned to be assessed in 2021/22, for which you have used reduction in assessment. You did this by providing the individual candidate details for all Cambridge Technicals candidates (including those completing qualifications in 2022/23). For students completing their qualification in 2022/23, we'll provide an opportunity for you to add any students who were missed in your original submission. We’ll confirm arrangements in the coming months. 

See our separate news story for the arrangements for GCSEs, AS and A Levels.

If you have any questions about what you have read here, please get in touch by calling us on 01223 553998 or email at support@ocr.org.uk.