The Education Secretary, Michael Gove, was in Cambridge on Wednesday to announce plans to improve the current A-level maths qualification. 

Speaking to the BBC, Gove said that Cambridge academics would be “deeply engaged in developing a new maths curriculum”. However, the University has denied reports in The Daily

Telegraph that it will be setting questions for A-level exam papers.The Maths Education Programme, launched today, will be led by Professor Martin Hyland, head of the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematics Statistics, and Lynne McClure, director of NRICH, part of the University’s Millennium Mathematics Project. The programme will provide free online materials for teachers and students, which will focus on “simple underlying mathematical ideas, helping students to explore connections between different areas of mathematics, and supporting the development of key mathematical skills and clarity of thought”.

The project will also provide summer schools for teachers in order to aid professional development and will collaborate with other organisations that are supporting the teaching of maths beyond GCSE level. “Pilot versions” of the resources will be published next summer.

In a report presented to the Department of Education, Professor Hyland suggests that “the majority of the talented students which Cambridge is able to recruit do not have sufficient mastery of basic mathematics to enable them to confidently engage with anything other than routine problems”.

Recommendations include having “graded sets of problems” in order to test the most able students.

“Existing A-level curriculums treat topics superficially and the UK has lost the tradition of teaching school mathematics coherently and in depth”, he argues. “The effect on Cambridge is acute.”

Gove announced in April that he wanted to give elite institutions, such as the University of Cambridge, “a far greater involvement in the design and development” of A-level examinations in an attempt to raise the standards of education. He wrote in a letter to Ofqual’s chief regulator, Glenys Stacey, saying that “the Government must take a step back in order to allow

universities to take a leading role. In future, I do not envisage the Department of Education having a role in the development of A-level qualifications.” The Education Secretary hopes that the reformed qualifications will begin in September 2014. Last week, reports suggested that a new Advanced

Baccalaureate would see students sitting a wider range of subjects: a pupil studying sciences would also have to take an arts subject. Pupils wanting to apply to Russell Group universities would have to write an extended essay of 5,000 words, which is similar to one of the requirements for the International Baccalaureate (IB). It is thought that the modular system will eventually be replaced.

In response to the leaked plans, Universities UK, which represents all 115 universities, argued that it would not be “advisable or operationally feasible for the sector to take on the ‘ownership of the exams’, particularly in terms of formally endorsing all A-levels as currently proposed.”