Access to higher education diploma

unaisa1111

10

Hi, if anybody has done this qualification, I would like to know how hard it is and what types of ways you are assessed

Reply 1

LouCook

6

Original post by unaisa1111

Hi, if anybody has done this qualification, I would like to know how hard it is and what types of ways you are assessed

Hi, I did the access to higher education course prior to going to University. The way I did it was I did 3 subjects (Psychology, Sociology, Criminology) over one year. We had a mixture of coursework and a few long/short answer exams. It was a lot of work, but we only attended class on 2 days of the week so the rest of the time we got on with coursework. I felt like I got the equivalent of an A level in a shorted period of time. I also had my part time job for 2 days a week and still managed to complete everything, but if you have to work more I would imagine it could be difficult.
Hope this helps!

Reply 2

unaisa1111

OP

10

@LouCook hi, thank you for this. What did you get, as I’ve been looking at universities and they want 45 credits at distinction and I don’t know what this means. You’ve said that it was a lot of work, aside from this was the work really difficult or was it relatively okay. Also do teachers allow you to redo some of the work to get a higher grade.

Reply 3

LouCook

6

Original post by unaisa1111

@LouCook hi, thank you for this. What did you get, as I’ve been looking at universities and they want 45 credits at distinction and I don’t know what this means. You’ve said that it was a lot of work, aside from this was the work really difficult or was it relatively okay. Also do teachers allow you to redo some of the work to get a higher grade.

So basically a subject can be made up of a number of credits, for me it was 15 each for Criminology and Sociology and 30 for Psychology, so 60 credits in total for the whole course. This will obviously be different for you depending on how many subjects you're taking. Each piece of coursework is worth a small amount of credits, so for example for Sociology I had 5 pieces of coursework for 3 credits each. Coursework is marked as pass, merit or distinction. I assume you'll need to achieve a distinction in enough pieces of coursework so that you have at least 45 credits as distinction. I think my University also asked for 45 distinction credits, but I ended up getting all 60 credits on my course as distinction. It's likely that your course will have a higher number of credits than those needed to get a place at Uni so you have some wriggle room to get lower marks on some assignments.
Aside from the assignments coming thick and fast, the work was fine to do. I had a lot of help from tutors. And you can submit drafts which you then get feedback on before your final submission, and also re-submit if you happen to fail.
That was the case for my course anyway, I attended the Manchester College. I imagine it would be similar for most access courses.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 4

tphiri123

1

What degree did you apply for? Were you able to apply for an undergraduate degree in Criminology, Sociology or Psychology with the access course you did?

Reply 5

Arden University

17

Original post by tphiri123

What degree did you apply for? Were you able to apply for an undergraduate degree in Criminology, Sociology or Psychology with the access course you did?

@tphiri123
Hello, I have taught on an Access to HE Social Science's Pathway for nearly ten years.

A standard Access to HE program in the social sciences will get you into any of those three providing you get the right number of UCAS tariff points and write a decent statement. Some subjects such as Nursing and Midwifery are likely to do interviews before offering a place, it is a bit less common for the social sciences but it does still happen. One of mine had an interview online with Cambridge a few weeks back.

A Social Science's Access course is often a route for people to get into social work and or primary education but check with the University you are interested in first via the admissions tutor. We had to close our Primary teaching pathway and one of the local uni's said that was OK that they could do the social science one instead

I would also stress that Universities often require certain Level 2 qualifications alongside access, usually english and maths, some require science such as midwifery. it is better workload wise to do these first

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Reply 6

LouCook

6

Original post by tphiri123

What degree did you apply for? Were you able to apply for an undergraduate degree in Criminology, Sociology or Psychology with the access course you did?

Yes I applied for Psychology and was accepted at the University of Sheffield, although was also offered places at Manchester Met and Salford.

Reply 7

Cote1

20

Original post by unaisa1111

@LouCook hi, thank you for this. What did you get, as I’ve been looking at universities and they want 45 credits at distinction and I don’t know what this means. You’ve said that it was a lot of work, aside from this was the work really difficult or was it relatively okay. Also do teachers allow you to redo some of the work to get a higher grade.

Hi
Different universities tend to ask for different numbers of distinctions. 15 of the credits are pass or fail is my understanding though Marc above can correct me if I am wrong.

Of the other 45, universities may ask for 45 distinctions or they may ask for a mixture of distinctions and merits or a mixture of distinctions, merits and passes.
Hope this helps.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 8

Quierosaber

8

Original post by LouCook

So basically a subject can be made up of a number of credits, for me it was 15 each for Criminology and Sociology and 30 for Psychology, so 60 credits in total for the whole course. This will obviously be different for you depending on how many subjects you're taking. Each piece of coursework is worth a small amount of credits, so for example for Sociology I had 5 pieces of coursework for 3 credits each. Coursework is marked as pass, merit or distinction. I assume you'll need to achieve a distinction in enough pieces of coursework so that you have at least 45 credits as distinction. I think my University also asked for 45 distinction credits, but I ended up getting all 60 credits on my course as distinction. It's likely that your course will have a higher number of credits than those needed to get a place at Uni so you have some wriggle room to get lower marks on some assignments.
Aside from the assignments coming thick and fast, the work was fine to do. I had a lot of help from tutors. And you can submit drafts which you then get feedback on before your final submission, and also re-submit if you happen to fail.
That was the case for my course anyway, I attended the Manchester College. I imagine it would be similar for most access courses.

Why did you get 60 credits at distinction? I’m currently doing an Access to Science course, and as far as I’m aware only 45 credits are graded at pass, fail, merit or distinction. The other 15 credits are just pass or fail.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 9

LouCook

6

Original post by Quierosaber

Why did you get 60 credits at distinction? I’m currently doing an Access to Science course, and as far as I’m aware only 45 credits are graded at pass, fail, merit or distinction. The other 15 credits are just pass or fail.

I did do the course 7 years ago so I can only assume it’s changed, but not sure on that one sorry!

Reply 10

Cote1

20

Original post by Quierosaber

Why did you get 60 credits at distinction? I’m currently doing an Access to Science course, and as far as I’m aware only 45 credits are graded at pass, fail, merit or distinction. The other 15 credits are just pass or fail.

Courses are currently structured as you say.

Reply 11

tllewellyn

9

Hi
Sorry to jump on
I’m currently taking the HE dip in Science. My course has asked for 15 credits at distinction in chemistry and biology.

Apart from the obvious guess from the title of the unit and content , is there a sure way to know which unit is chemistry and which is biology ?

Thanks

Reply 12

Quierosaber

8

Original post by tllewellyn

Hi
Sorry to jump on
I’m currently taking the HE dip in Science. My course has asked for 15 credits at distinction in chemistry and biology.

Apart from the obvious guess from the title of the unit and content , is there a sure way to know which unit is chemistry and which is biology ?

Thanks

Your tutor should be able to clarify that for you.

Reply 13

Chris smith6

7

Original post by LouCook

So basically a subject can be made up of a number of credits, for me it was 15 each for Criminology and Sociology and 30 for Psychology, so 60 credits in total for the whole course. This will obviously be different for you depending on how many subjects you're taking. Each piece of coursework is worth a small amount of credits, so for example for Sociology I had 5 pieces of coursework for 3 credits each. Coursework is marked as pass, merit or distinction. I assume you'll need to achieve a distinction in enough pieces of coursework so that you have at least 45 credits as distinction. I think my University also asked for 45 distinction credits, but I ended up getting all 60 credits on my course as distinction. It's likely that your course will have a higher number of credits than those needed to get a place at Uni so you have some wriggle room to get lower marks on some assignments.
Aside from the assignments coming thick and fast, the work was fine to do. I had a lot of help from tutors. And you can submit drafts which you then get feedback on before your final submission, and also re-submit if you happen to fail.
That was the case for my course anyway, I attended the Manchester College. I imagine it would be similar for most access courses.

Hi, I'm due to start an access in engineering course, I've got two offers, one from Trafford college and one from the manchester college. What did you make of Manchester college?

Access to higher education diploma

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