UK's OxfordAQA cancels IGCSE and A Level exams in UAE for May/June 2026 series
Dubai: The UK exam board OxfordAQA has cancelled all of its International GCSE and International A Level exams in the UAE for the May/June 2026 series.
It was included in an email sent to UAE schools on Thursday and signed by Rob Bryson, Director of International Delivery.
“Following close consultation with The Ministry of Education, schools and other international exam boards, we have decided to cancel OxfordAQA exams in your country,” Bryson wrote.
Students will receive grades based on evidence of performance and banked results from prior assessments.
Students with banked grades
Students who have already been awarded results in OxfordAQA International AS and A Level components in a previous series will be able to use those results for overall grading purposes. Students who have never banked grades will need their schools to provide evidence of their performance.
Between Friday, May 1 and Friday, June 12, 2026 schools will be required to submit evidence of the performance of individual students digitally. In addition, schools will need to give a Head of Centre declaration, and an option to submit predicted grades.
“Our examiners will take the time to carefully consider and mark using all evidence presented, with reference also to the circumstances in which any work was undertaken, and challenges faced by students,” Bryson said.
Non-certifying students
For students who will not be completing their qualification in this series, OxfordAQA said it would work with schools to defer them on to a future series — with further guidance shortly.
Support for schools, students
OxfordAQA said it had prioritised communicating with schools to ensure as much certainty as possible reaches them, adding that more details on contingency arrangements would be added to its support site in the coming days.
“We know this has been a very challenging time for schools, teachers and students and everyone has demonstrated tremendous resilience. Every decision we make we are putting students in the middle,” Bryson said.
In the schools that need so, they can contact OxfordAQA at [email protected] or via phone on +44 161 696 5995 from Monday to Friday between 8am and 5pm UK time.
On Thursday, other UK boards -- Cambridge Assessment International Education and Pearson Edexcel -- also announced that they would cancel their exams in the UAE.
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