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Welsh Baccalaureat

Now being studied by more than 60,000 young people in Wales, it's been described as the 'Marmite qualification'; students either love it or hate it. Ten years on from its introduction, Kayley Thomas examines the Welsh Bacc: does it make the grade, or could it do better?

Last updated: 13 May 2012

It was intended to offer teenagers a more rounded education than that offered by academic subjects alone - but around a decade on from its inception, new research is questioning how beneficial the Welsh Baccalaureat is for students who go on to university.

Eye on Wales reveals that research carried out by Cardiff University into the progress and performance of 17,000 undergraduates, suggests that those with the Bac perform less well than those without it.

The Welsh Government has pledged to widen out the statistical study - conducted by the Welsh Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) - to explore the impact of the Bac on students at other universities, as part of their ongoing review of qualifications for 14- to 19-year-olds.

The programme hears from pupils currently studying for the Bac, and from a student who wrote to his local MP about the Bac after discovering that his chosen degree course didn't regard it as equal to an A-grade at A-level, as university admissions body UCAS has stipulated.

One of the so-called "architects" of the Bac tells the programme of his scepticism over its quality.

Meanwhile Welsh exam board the WJEC reveals it's carrying out its own research into the impact of the Bac on A-level and GCSE grades.

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