access to he diploma: next steps

​Never heard of the Access to HE Diploma? It’s a Level 4 HND qualification specifically designed to help students who don’t have traditional qualifications like A Levels or Scottish Highers to get into university or other higher education.

The course takes about a year to complete, and then you’re ready to apply for UCAS and go straight into Degree-level courses.
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Subject areas include:

• Agriculture, Horticulture and Animal Care
• Arts, Media and Publishing
• Business, Administration and Law
• Construction, Planning and the Built Environment
• Education and Training
• Engineering and Manufacturing Training
• Health, Public Services and Care
• History, Philosophy and Theology
• Information and Communication Technology
• Languages, Literature and Culture
• Leisure, Travel and Tourism
• Retail and Commercial Enterprise
• Science and Mathematics
• Social Sciences

…so, pretty much everything.

Just like standard degrees, you can apply for a full tuition loan to cover the price of your studies, and possibly even a maintenance loan for living costs. The best part? It won’t need to be repayed until you’re earning over £25,000.
The diploma can be a great stepping-stone into university, whether you’ve had a break from education and want some extra support before heading into uni or whether you didn’t get the grades you wanted or dropped out before you finished.

The Access to HE Diploma has some pretty impressive stats, too:

• In 2017-2018, 23,950 people took up the diploma course.
• 83% of these were over 21 – it’s never “too late” to get into higher education.
• 19,200 were awarded the diploma at the end of their course – a whopping 90.4% success rate.
• 23,295 Access to HE Diploma holders were accepted on UCAS courses for Sep 2018 entry.

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Sounds like this might be right for you? Head to the Access to HE Diploma site for more information on the options available, the certified course providers, a database of courses running, funding information and a huge list of FAQs.

Author

LUCY HARDING is the Editorial manager for Push. She is an English Literature grad and an MA Publishing student at UCL. She is passionate about international relations and cultural diversity, having worked closely with her university’s Erasmus society to support European students. She also spent a year abroad studying at California State University: Long Beach