Access to Higher Education

Access to Higher Education courses are Level 3 qualifications that enable adult learners to progress to university level  study in place of traditional A-Level qualifications.

Students normally complete our Access to HE programmes in 1 to 3 years depending on their prior qualifications and work experience and taking into account the time available to study alongside work and family commitments.

Within the Access programme students can also study a range of Level 2 qualifications, including GCSEs if these are needed as stepping stones towards the Access Diploma.

We currently offer five different Level 3 Diplomas with September starts and two more with January starts. Each of these is available through three different modes of study: full-time in college, part-time in college, and Blended learning:

• The full-time route is completed over one year and involves two days of lessons per week in college, plus a similar amount of independent study time.
• The part-time route is one day per week in college and is completed over two years.
• The Blended learning route is mostly studied independently using resources provided by our tutors, but in addition there are regular mandatory sessions, both in college and online, which take place in the evenings. It can be taken over 1 or 2 years.

All Access Diplomas nationally carry 60 credits of which 45 are graded at Pass, Merit or Distinction. Universities will specify the number of Distinction or Merit grades they require for each of their courses.