What is Access to Higher Education?

With the Access to Higher Education Diploma, students who left school without formal qualifications like A-Levels or for Mature Students, there is a qualification to help you at university.

Those who are looking to study a BA, a Higher National Diploma, the Certificate of Higher Education or even the LNAT, will now have an easier way to study at the university of your dreams!

What is the Access to Higher Education Diploma?

The Access to Higher Education Diploma (sometimes referred to as the Access to HE Diploma) is a diploma offered in the UK to prepare students for an undergraduate degree at university.

The diploma is mostly aimed at Mature Students (but younger students may still take the qualification) who left school without any formal qualifications, like A-Levels. After you complete the Access to Higher Education diploma, you will have a qualification that is held in the same regard as A Levels.

An Access to Higher Education diploma is often related to a Contextual Offer for students, as many students with a Contextual Offer end up trying an Access to Higher Education diploma prior to attending university. The course usually takes around one year of study time for full-time students and two years for part-time students.

What is Access to HE Diploma equivalent to?

Technically speaking, Access to HE Diploma courses are equivalent to a Level 3 qualification. This means that the work you do is generally about A-Level standard.

Previously, the Access to Higher Education also included GCSE equivalencies as well, but that has since been dropped in favour of more of a focus on Key Stage 4 learning.

What are the UCAS Points for the course?

As you will no doubt be aware, your UCAS Tariff Points are hugely important for getting into university. For an Access to HE Diploma, the tariff points are anywhere between 48 and 144 points, depending on the grade you received from the awarding body.

What is the Access to HE Diploma grading system?

Much like with a standard BTEC, you are graded by four potential grades:

• Fail
• Pass
• Merit
• Distinction

There are obviously variants on that, such as Distinction with Merit etc, but these are the main grade schemes for the course. Access to Higher Education university places may be harder to come by if you haven’t got the right grade, some universities are very adamant about the grades you get.

What universities accept Access to Higher Education?

A lot of universities do accept the ACHE as a formal qualification and are happy to consider students with them as well, however, many universities do not consider the ACHE as a high enough level of qualification to merit a place on their course.

A common question is whether or not the Russell Group Universities allow ACHE courses to apply and unfortunately, once again, there is no hard and fast rule.

You will need to speak to the university before you apply and see if they accept them, the more you speak to, the better the idea you will have on this.

How hard is Access to Higher Education?

As with everything in life, it’s all dependent on the work you put into it. If you put minimal effort in, the course will be very difficult, if you work hard, the course will be comparatively easy. That being said, the course itself covers lots of different Access to Higher Education modules, including but not limited to:

• Science courses
• Nursing courses
• Midwifery courses
• Computing courses
• Health courses
• Engineering courses
• Medicine courses
• Social work courses
• Law courses
• Humanities courses
• Business courses
• Social Science courses

You can see for yourself that the course a wide range of topics, so it's difficulty will depend on you.

Where can I do an Access to Higher Education Diploma?

The ACHE isn’t necessarily run at your normal college or school, there have to be approved vendors of such a qualification.

You can find a list of accredited providers, using the Access to Higher Education website and check out where you can study your course, whether you're doing an Access to HE Diploma Humanities, Access to HE Diploma distance learning, Access to HE Diploma Nursing or an Access to HE Diploma in Computing.

What is Combined Studies Access to Higher Education?

A Combined Studies Access to Higher Education is a chance for students to be able to combine one or more subjects with a primary-course selection. This allows students to have a higher grade in other subjects or possibly improve on a previous grade.

Combined Studies are commonplace in a lot of diplomas, so the ACHE is no different.

Is an Access for Higher Education Diploma valid abroad?

It’s unknown if it is valid in all countries, but there will be a number of foreign universities who do accept it as a valid form of qualification. The best thing you can do, is check in with your university before you apply and see what they say about it.