Who Owns OCR?

OCR was formed in 1998 when the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, known as UCLES, merged its UK-focused assessment operations with the examinations arm of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, better known as the RSA.

UCLES itself was the oldest of England's exam bodies. The University of Cambridge had run the Local Examinations Syndicate since 1858, when it began setting exams for school students who were not members of the university. By the late twentieth century it administered a full range of GCSEs and A Levels alongside its growing international work.

The RSA brought a vocational tradition dating to the nineteenth century, including the typing, clerical, and business qualifications that made RSA certificates familiar to generations of office workers. The merger combined Cambridge's academic exam heritage with the RSA's occupational assessment business under the name Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations, universally shortened to OCR.

OCR's early years included the transition to Curriculum 2000 A Levels and later the reformed linear A Levels and 9 to 1 GCSEs of the 2015 to 2018 period. It built strength in sciences, computing, and creative subjects, and developed Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals as its main vocational qualifications, replacing older lines including the Nationals, Nationals Plus, and legacy vocational suites.

The pandemic disrupted OCR like every board, with teacher assessed grades replacing exams in 2020 and 2021 before normal series resumed in 2022.

In August 2021, OCR's parent Cambridge Assessment merged with Cambridge University Press to form Cambridge University Press & Assessment. In September 2025, the organization renamed the board Cambridge OCR, strengthening the link to the Cambridge name in schools. As of 2026 it remains one of the three large awarding bodies in England alongside AQA and Pearson Edexcel.