Yesterday The Guardian published an article detailing Ofqual's (England's exam regulator) plans to get axe practicals and lab work from science A-levels. You can read the article here.

This is part of a string of moves to ensure A-Levels are "rigorous", and Michael Gove's opinion is that coursework, especially science practicals and experiments, are not marked and assessed in a rigorous way.

At Imperial we are complaining that our students are over-examined, fed too much information and that this leads to a loss of enthuasiasm and passion for their subject and science in general. The move to science A-Levels in which 100% of assessment is made up of exams will make this problem even worse, and will hardly inspire students to continue studying science at university.

Ofqual is stressing that lab experiments will still go ahead, but will count towards a separate qualification called the "practical endorsed certificate for science". However, with schools constantly focused on targets and A-level grades, will all schools put in adequate resources for this qualification? Will all schools offer this qualification at all? This creates even further problems related to access. I envisage future Imperial applicants being given an offer of: A*A*A and a pass in this new practical certificate. If only private and the most well-off schools offer this qualification that isn't fair to all those students who want to study science at university. We already have problems with not all schools offering further maths A-level, and this being included in Imperial's offer for many of their degrees- this movement increases the access problem further!

Surely there is a better way? Finding a more rigorous and appropriate way of assessing practical skills is one I can think of. We want to inspire young people and teach them what science is really about, not spoon-feed them loads of facts and assess how good they are at memorising and regurgitating those facts in an exams. Students will be able to get an A* even if they fail the practical certificate, which means students could come into their university degree massively underprepared and lacking the practical skills they require. This will lead to stressed and unhappy students. You cannot have science without practicals. It isn't science! All of us at Imperial know that through all the practical work we do during our degrees.

Michael Gove has his priorities wrong: "These changes will increase the rigour of qualifications, strengthening the respect in which they are held by employers and universities alike". He says this despite the whole of the scientific community coming out to oppose these changes and express their disbelief in his choices.

At Imperial we want to help and inspire the next generation of scientists- Michael Gove and Ofqual have just made our job harder.