School Indicators

The School Indicators dashboard is part of the British Academy’s SHAPE Observatory and provides a tool to explore trends in subject entries across secondary and post-16 qualifications in the UK. These include:

• GCSE (usually taken by 16-year-olds at the end of secondary education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales). Data for GCSEs is published and collected by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ).
• A level (usually taken by 18-year-olds at the end of post-16 education in England, Northern Ireland and Wales). Data for A levels is also published and collected by JCQ.
• Scottish Qualifications: National 5 (usually taken by students in the Senior Phase S4–S6, ages 15–17), and Highers and Advanced Highers (usually taken by students in the Senior Phase S5–S6, aged 16–18) in Scotland. Data for Scottish qualifications is published and collected by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA).

The School Indicators focus on SHAPE disciplines, showing how their uptake changes over time and across qualifications. For comparison, all other subjects are grouped under a single ‘STEM & other subjects’ category, which serves as a useful reference point.

Each tab offers interactive filters to explore A level and GCSE entries, with options to switch between total entries and gender distribution, and to view the data in either absolute numbers or percentages. When viewing by country, percentages represent the share of entries within that nation, not across the UK as a whole.

The School Indicators allows users to identify trends in uptake of SHAPE disciplines, showing how participation changes over time and varies across different qualifications. They do not provide analysis of the reasons behind increasing or decreasing entries. Users should look to other resources on the Observatory for in-depth analyses of disciplinary changes, such as our State of the Discipline reports and for a wider view to the Subject choice trends in post-16 education in England report.

Note on gender data:

The gender breakdown in this dashboard follows the binary Male/Female classification used by JCQ and SQA. These sources do not specify whether this refers to biological sex or self-identified gender. We reproduce the labels exactly as provided to remain consistent with the source data.

Important clarification about 'entries’.

The data shown in the dashboard refers to entries, not individual students. In most cases, one student enters multiple subjects in a single year (e.g. a student may sit 8–10 GCSEs). Therefore:

• Entry numbers represent subject-level choices, not headcounts.
• These indicators track participation, not performance or attainment.

This dashboard provides trends for GCSE, A level, National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher qualifications through a series of interactive visualisations. Cards at the top of each page summarise the most recent (or selected) year's entries or proportion of all entries, along with one-year and five-year changes. The dashboard defaults to the most recent year of data. You can hover over each card to see a short explanation of what the figure represents.

You can tailor your view using these filters:

• Year: in the GCSE and A level panels, use the slider to adjust the time period displayed. You can narrow or expand the timeline to focus on particular ranges between 2004 and 2025.
• Qualification level: for Scottish qualifications, select National 5, Higher, or Advanced Higher.
• Country: select England, Northern Ireland, Wales or the entire UK in the GCSE and A level panels.
• Subjects: select SHAPE subject groupings (Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) or drill down to individual subjects such as Drama, French, or Geography. The 'STEM & Other Subjects’ category aggregates all non‑SHAPE disciplines.

As a result of curriculum reforms, some qualifications have been withdrawn over the time period covered. This explains why entries for certain subjects in the dashboard have either fallen sharply or dropped to zero.

Over the period covered by the dashboard, there have also been changes in the way data is collected by the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. These adjustments have introduced some inconsistencies in subject entries, which we highlight below.

In addition, for both JCQ sources (covering GCSE and A level) and for Scottish qualifications, gender data has not been reported in certain years. Where you can see total entries but no gender breakdown, this is because the data was not collected for that year.

GCSE 

• Business and Communication Systems: withdrawn in England and Wales after 2018.
• Expressive Arts: entries for these subjects are reported under Performing / Expressive Arts after 2007.
• Hospitality: withdrawn in England and Wales after 2018.
• Humanities: withdrawn after 2017.
• Social Science: entries for these subjects are combined with Other Social Science to form Social Science subjects after 2006.

A level

• Communication Studies: withdrawn after 2018.
• Critical Thinking: withdrawn after 2018.
• English: Prior to 2017, all entries for English were reported under the single subject title English. From 2017 onwards, reflecting curriculum changes to A levels introduced from autumn 2015, entries have been reported separately under three A levels: English Language, English Literature, and English Language & Literature.
• Expressive Arts / Drama: entries for these subjects are reported under Drama and Performing / Expressive Arts from 2007.
• Welsh: Prior to 2017, all entries for Welsh were reported under the single subject title Welsh. From 2017 onwards, entries have been reported separately under two A levels: Welsh First Language and Welsh Second Language.
• Additional note: JCQ only began releasing separate data for entries to Accounting and Philosophy in 2025. Before this, both subjects were aggregated under “All other subjects”, so disaggregated data for these qualifications is not available prior to 2024 in the dashboard.

National 5

• National 5 qualifications were assessed for the first time in 2014, with National 4 and National 5 qualifications replacing Standard Grades.
• Chinese Languages: includes Cantonese, Mandarin (Simplified) and Mandarin (Traditional).
• Entries reported under Geography, History and Modern Studies include provision in both English and Gaelic languages.

Highers and Advanced Highers

• New Scottish Higher qualifications were assessed for the first time in 2015.
• While assessment for 'new' and 'old' Highers simultaneously took place in 2015, these dashboards only include 'new' Highers data for 2015, so entries in that year are lower than subsequent years.
• New Advanced Highers were assessed for the first time in 2016. 
• Chinese Languages: includes Cantonese, Mandarin (Simplified) and Mandarin (Traditional).

This resource is part of the British Academy’s wider SHAPE Observatory, which monitors the health of SHAPE subjects across the UK education pipeline.

Together with the reports and tools described below, it represents a suite of evidence-based resources enabling users across higher education and policy to access principal data on participation and progression in SHAPE subjects. Together, the resources help to build an overall picture of the SHAPE education pipeline and how it is changing over time.

• The British Academy’s Subject choice trends in post-16 education in England report, which provides analysis on trends in the combinations of subject choice made by students taking A level or level 3 qualifications in England. The report is accompanied by the Subject Choice Trends dashboard, which provides a detailed breakdown of subject uptake in post‑16 education in England by student characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and free school meals eligibility.
• Our State of the Discipline reports provide in-depth analysis of trends in specific SHAPE disciplines. Recent examples include the ‘Politics and International Relations’ report (2025), and ‘Media, Screen, Journalism and Communication Studies’ (2024).
• The interactive Mapping SHAPE Provision in UK Higher Education tool which highlights hot and cold spots of subject provision across the UK using HESA FPE data and allows users to explore regional disparities, provider-level changes, and the availability of joint or single honours.

Additional data indicators providing objective information on the health of SHAPE disciplines will continue to be added to this resource.

The next phase of the SHAPE Indicators work will provide data on trends in SHAPE subjects in higher education.