Post-16 students are studying a narrower range of subjects than 20 years ago, a report has found, sparking calls for ministers to address this through the curriculum review.
The National Foundation for Educational Research reports on a fall in take-up across the main subject groups since 2015-16, when AS and A-levels were “decoupled”.
But take-up for humanities and arts courses plunged compared to STEM and social sciences over the past two decades, the study warns on the eve of A-level results day.
NFER found a “sharp reduction” in the range of subjects chosen by students and are instead choosing their A-levels from a single subject group.
Subject choices available to students have also diminished over this period, with modern foreign languages badly hit.
The government has committed to a curriculum and assessment review, led by Professor Becky Francis, chief executive of the Education Endowment Foundation.
Dr Molly Morgan Jones, director of policy at the British Academy, which commissioned the report, said: “Breadth and balance should be at the heart of any future post-16 curriculum and should not be negatively impacted by any future reforms.”
Here are six key findings from the report…
1. More students taking AS/A-levels from single subject group
There has been a fall in take-up across all major subject groups at AS and A-level since 2015-16, “probably” due to them being separated that year, the report states.
The 2015 change meant AS results no longer counted towards A-level qualifications. As a result students now take fewer qualifications than before, NFER noted.
The analysis also found that rising proportions of students are choosing to only study subjects from within the same subject group, such as by just taking STEM courses.
Between 2003-04 and 2021-22, the proportion taking AS/A-levels from a single subject group nearly doubled from 18 per cent to 35 per cent, most of this rise was post-2015.
2. Drop in three subject groups combinations
There also has been a sharp decline in the proportion of AS and A-level students taking a “three-way combination of subject groups”, NFER found.
Just five per cent of students in the 2021-22 cohort were mixing subjects from a STEM, social science and humanities subject, for instance.
This was down by nearly two thirds from 2015-16, when 14 per cent of each cohort combined a subject from each of these three groups, it added.
3. Diminished subject choice
At subject level, “choices for students have diminished” since 2007-08 with providers “generally reducing the range of subjects being offered”, the report states.
NFER found almost all arts AS/A-level subjects have seen a “dramatic decline” in availability across providers, while art and design studies seen a “moderate” dip.
Most humanities subjects also saw a slump in availability from 2007-08 to 2021-22.
French, German and religious studies were offered by “significantly fewer” providers than in 2007-08. The proportion offering French AS or A-level has fallen most years since 2009-10, down from 78 per cent of providers to 53 per cent in 2021-22.
A young person’s background, environment and gender also plays a key role in influencing their subject choices, the report found.
4. Humanities hit hard
Humanities and arts subjects have been particularly affected by a decline in take-up among post-16 students since 2015-16.
Falls in the proportions of students taking English, history, religious studies and modern foreign languages post-2015 look to have driven the decline for humanities, NFER notes.
While 56 per cent of students studied a humanities subject in 2015-16, only 38 per cent took one in 2021-22, the research shows.
But the decline across arts subjects started in the early 2010s and has been “more gradual”, falling from a high of 42 per cent in 2006-07 to 24 per cent in 2021-22.
The likelihood of a student studying a humanities and arts subject was, respectively, about 21 and 15 percentage points lower in 2021-22 compared to 2003-04, NFER adds.
“The decoupling of AS- and A-level qualifications has likely played a key role in the reduction in the range of subjects taken up by students,” the report states.
“These changes have particularly affected the take-up of humanities and arts subjects – and risk having a profound impact on the future shape of these disciplines.”
5. But social science and STEM ‘relatively stable’
But the proportion of students studying STEM and social science subjects over the past two decades has remained “relatively stable”.
In 2003-04, 62 per cent of students took a social science subject – such as psychology – compared to 63 per cent in 2021-22.
For STEM subjects, the proportion has hovered at around half of all students in each cohort since 2003-04, ranging from 48 per cent to 54 per cent.
Participation in maths peaked at 36 per cent of the 2017-18 cohort but since the decoupling of maths AS in 2017, this has dropped to 30 per cent by 2021-22.
6. Renewed union calls for EBacc to be axed
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL school leaders’ union, said “we have to get the balance right between specialisation at post-16 and maintaining a reasonable breadth of study and options for the future, and that balance isn’t quite right at present.
“The new government’s curriculum and assessment review will need to consider how to address that.”
Di’Iasio renewed the union’s called for the English Baccalaureate to be scrapped as it was “favouring a particular set of academic subjects at GCSE” and “has led to decline in entries to other subjects which has a knock-on effect in post-16”.
Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, urged ministers to make changes to “encourage and enable” post-16 students to study a broader range of subjects, including by scrapping performance measures based on EBacc subjects and reviewing Progress 8.
A Department for Education spokesperson said the curriculum and assessment review will “transform the outdated curriculum and assessment system”.
“The renewed curriculum will ensure young people get the opportunity to access a broad and balanced curriculum, as well as crucial work and life skills, providing the foundation to succeed in both the workplace and throughout their lives.”
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