Summer 2021 fees

We want to be transparent about our fees policy following the cancellation of exams this summer. Our published fees are based on our costs if exams were still going ahead as usual. When we have reviewed the final costs involved in giving students grades this summer, we will pass on any savings to you, as we did in 2019/20. Our fees are available on the OCR website.

Late entry fees

To support school and colleges further, we can now confirm we won't be charging any late fees for general qualifications and Cambridge Nationals until after Monday 15 March 2021, giving you time to digest the outcomes of the consultations for GCSE, AS and A Levels plus VTQs and other general qualifications.

We are allowing schools and colleges extra time to make entries on behalf of private candidates by extending the entries deadline to 26 April 2021 for private candidates only. 

Passing back our savings

We are committed to passing back savings from this summer in the form of a rebate to schools and colleges again. (Please see our FAQs below for more information.) Last year, we passed back the savings we made following the cancellation of exams with a 23% rebate on our GCSE, AS and A Level and a 20% rebate on our Cambridge Nationals and Cambridge Technicals entry fees.

What our fees cover

Alongside our specifications, our fees include a considerable package of resources and support for schools and colleges.

During the pandemic, we have been continually adapting our support to meet the needs of schools and colleges, with extra online training events for teachers and exams officers, and free resources to support remote learning, as well as clear and regular communications. We will deliver the assessment materials, training and guidance and the extra quality checks that are determined by the consultation.

Why are you publishing fees for exam entries when exams are cancelled?

Our published fees are designed to help you manage your budgets. It may also help in providing a figure for private candidates or for independent schools. Based on 2020, it takes a considerable time to review all the costs that will be incurred in the alternative arrangements and to calculate the savings we can pass on, although we will do this as quickly as we can. 

When will you invoice us for these entries?

We'll be delaying our summer 2021 entries invoicing for general qualifications and Cambridge Nationals for three weeks. For your added security, we will be adding an OCR watermark across the base of each of our invoices.

Will you adjust the fees once the consultation outcome is known?

We may take the approach of adjusting our fees before we invoice schools and colleges if we have sufficient information on the costs we will incur. If we don’t have sufficient information on our costs at that stage, then we will refund schools and colleges (ie rebate route) as soon as we have this clarity.

We’re keen to respond and be as flexible as possible.

Our school/college is facing financial problems. What can we do?

We are keen to support schools and appreciate there may be circumstances where you will need to discuss alternative payment arrangements with us. In this event, you should contact OCR at creditcontrol@cambridgeassessment.org.uk or on 01223 558686 to discuss further.

Will you be updating the basedata to include fees?

We have updated our basedata to include the 2020/21 fees. This can be downloaded from the OCR website. Please make sure you have the latest version of the basedata. Downloading the basedata again will not affect any data already sent to OCR, and will not affect the issue of your results. If you need help with refreshing your basedata, Capita SIMS have put together a YouTube video to show you how.