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Thinking about Higher Education (HE)?

Higher education study can be done at universities, higher education colleges or some further education colleges.

There is more info about higher education at www.heguide.org.uk. This includes everything you need to know about going on to higher education, from help with planning and course applications, to student life, taking a year out and life after HE

Study Options

Diploma of Higher Education (Dip. HE)

These are 2-year courses, equivalent to the first 2 years of a degree.

They are offered in a variety of subject areas, from specific occupational courses such as nursing and midwifery, to more general academic subjects such as English and sociology.

Afterwards, students can 'convert' to a full degree by studying for an extra year.

Higher National Diploma (HND)/ Higher National Certificate (HNC)

These are vocational courses, which focus on a specific area of employment such as Business.

HNC lasts one year full-time and HND lasts two years full-time. Both courses can be taken part-time over a longer period of time.

At the end of an HND/HNC, you can go into employment or progress onto a degree course.

Foundation Degree

• Designed to give students the skills, experience and specialist technical knowledge employers want.
• Mix academic and work-based learning.
• They take 2 years to complete full-time, and can also be studied on part-time. They can be done by work-based, distance or web-based learning.
• Typical courses focus on new technology, such as ICT, multimedia design, digital broadcasting and e-business.
• Afterwards, you can move on to a related degree, or you may be able to take further professional qualifications in the workplace.

For more information, go to the foundation degree website

Honours Degree

• The most common higher education qualification.
• Last for 3 or 4 years (full-time), depending on the course. Sandwich degrees and language degrees generally last for 4 years. (A sandwich degree includes a year spent in industry/business. A language degree includes a year studying in a foreign country.)
• Courses in medicine, veterinary science, dentistry and architecture generally last for five years.
• Teaching degrees last either 3 or 4 years.
• A degree can also be studied part-time or by flexible learning.
• You can choose to combine subjects. Degrees can be offered as:

Single honours - when you study one major subject.

Joint honours - when you study two major subjects.

Combined honours - where you combine two or more subjects.

Got Vocational Qualifications?

You may notice that prospectuses refer mainly to A levels (AS/A2 levels) when they talk about entry requirements for courses. However, universities and colleges of higher education do value vocational qualifications and they carry points towards your entry requirements.

Always check with your preferred university/college to see how your qualifications count. NVQs, Diplomas, and Functional skills are all recognised so make them count!

The best information about how vocational qualfications count towards university entry is the UCAS Tariff you can check out latest version on the UCAS website. The UCAS Tariff is a points score system for entry to higher education. It gives numerical values to qualifications and establishes agreed equivalence between different types of qualfications.

How about the new Advanced Level Diplomas?

The Diplomas are also part of the UCAS tariff.

A top grade A Level attracts 120 points and an A grade at AS level has 60.

The Advanced Progression Diploma will attract a maximum score of 300 points - equivalent to two A grade A Levels, plus an A grade AS Level , or three grade B A Levels.

The Advanced Diploma will attract a maximum of 420 tariff points and so will be worth more than three A grade A levels in points value.

The recently announced Extended Advanced Diploma will be the same size as 4.5 A levels.