Who Owns AQA?

AQA's roots reach back to 1903, when the universities of Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool formed the Joint Matriculation Board to run school examinations. The JMB later became the Northern Examining Association, and in 1992 merged with other boards into the Northern Examinations and Assessment Board.

A second strand ran through the Associated Examining Board, founded in 1953 to bring the new General Certificate of Education to all secondary schools, and the Southern Examining Group. These southern boards combined as AEB/SEG.

On 7 November 1997 the northern and southern boards formed an alliance, and on 1 April 2000 the NEAB and AEB/SEG formally merged to create the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance. City and Guilds participated in the early alliance but chose to remain independent, transferring its GNVQ provision to the new body. The organization soon shortened its name to AQA, becoming the largest exam board in England.

The 2000s and 2010s brought repeated qualification reform. Curriculum 2000 restructured A Levels into AS and A2 units. Later reforms under the 2010 coalition government removed most modular assessment, and between 2015 and 2018 GCSEs were redesigned as linear courses with 9 to 1 grading. AQA rewrote hundreds of specifications for each wave of reform.

In 2011 AQA acquired Teachit, an online community where teachers share classroom resources, and Doublestruck, which provides question banks and on-screen assessment tools. These moved the charity into digital teacher support alongside its examining work.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021, with grades awarded through teacher assessment under government direction. Normal exams resumed in 2022. In recent years AQA has expanded on-screen assessment pilots and digital marking, while defending its position as the most-used exam board in England. It marked its 25th anniversary in 2025.