Industry News
Top private school favours Baccalaureate
Posted on 19th February 2008
Liverpool College is set to introduce the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) this September, under the guidance of its new American principal.
The prestigious independent school will be offering the European qualification alongside some A-levels, although incoming headmaster Hans Van Mourik Broekman, 41, favours scrapping A-levels altogether.
He told the Liverpool Daily Post that the IB was a "superior qualification", which is also a "great way to get Ucas points".
A-levels, he said, "force students to specialise in subjects," while the IB is "much more in keeping with the historic mission of the school of educating pupils better".
Mr Broekman also intends to create a "classless" admission policy based on the American system at the school, which currently charges up to £8,280 a year.
He would like to spend ten per cent of the school's budget on funding means-tested pupils and give 25 per cent of pupils some sort of financial assistance.
The Independent reported last October that over the past four years the number of schools teaching the IB in the UK has more than doubled to 101, nearly half of which are in the independent sector. 