Dental Hygiene - access to higher education diploma

I am a fully qualified dental nurse, I have my GCSES but I do not have any a levels. I am wanting to study dental hygiene and am interested in doing an access to higher education diploma to get me there. These cost quite a bit of money and was hoping for recommendations as to where to do this preferably online from someone else who had done a course.

Looking at applying to Sheffield university eventually.

Reply 1

MindMax2000

Universities Forum Helper

21

Original post by twinklestara

I am a fully qualified dental nurse, I have my GCSES but I do not have any a levels. I am wanting to study dental hygiene and am interested in doing an access to higher education diploma to get me there. These cost quite a bit of money and was hoping for recommendations as to where to do this preferably online from someone else who had done a course.

Looking at applying to Sheffield university eventually.

I have done an offline Access course, but not an online one. So I cannot give you personal recommendations on individual courses.

If you want to do a course from Sheffield for dental hygiene, see:
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/undergraduate/courses/2024/dental-hygiene-and-dental-therapy-higher-education-diploma#entryreqs
The requirements are:
5 GCSE at grade C / grade 4 to include Mathematics, English Language and Science. +

Access to Higher Education Diploma (60 credits with 45 at Level 3 at grade Merit) including 36 Level 3 credits in relevant Science units (preferably Biology) at grade Merit. OR 2 A Levels to include one in a relevant Science subject (preferably Biology) at grade CC.

Do note, if you intend to do A Levels, it does not say that the science A Level needs to include the practical assessment. In other words, you can pick Physics. Chemistry, or Biology as one of them and not have to pay £1000 to have the practicals assessed (you still need to sit the exams). However, I would still check with Sheffield undergrad admissions at their dental school if this is accurate.

If you want to do a course search for accredited courses, see the following: https://www.accesstohe.ac.uk/course-search/Index?page=1&searchCourseName=science&searchLocation=&searchDistance=AnyMiles&searchDistanceLearning=True&searchClickedLinkPosition=
There are less than 90 distance learning courses to look through. Some of these can cost less than £1000, but you need to look through each one carefully.
What I would be careful of is to check whether the course they offer contains at least 36 units in the sciences (ideally biology related). If it doesn't, you would be wasting your money on the course, considering what you want to do. The courses that are relevant to biology will take preferrence.

There are other exam bodies such as CAVA and Ascentis, but I have problems looking for the course search engines for these.

In terms of checking for qualities, I would use Trust Pilot for further reviews (https://uk.trustpilot.com/). I would then filter the comments for the individual course provider for the specific Access course that you're doing (instead of going through hundreds/thousands of reviews).

If you have issues with funding, you can contact the Student Finance company to see if you can get Advanced Learner's Loan, provided the course you want to study is from a recognised education institution (something with OfQual creditation for example). I would call Student Finance to double check on the details.

Reply 2

Rennea

5

I'm in the same position, in September I will be starting my access to science course at a college. I believe if you're over the age of 18 and under the age of 25 there's a learns loan you can apply for that will cover the cost. I think if you get accepted to uni the same year you don't need to pay it back, however if you don't you do. Its worth doing some research into

Original post by twinklestara

I am a fully qualified dental nurse, I have my GCSES but I do not have any a levels. I am wanting to study dental hygiene and am interested in doing an access to higher education diploma to get me there. These cost quite a bit of money and was hoping for recommendations as to where to do this preferably online from someone else who had done a course.

Looking at applying to Sheffield university eventually.

Reply 3

squeezelou

2

Hi, I've just completed an access course at my local college. I took out an advanced learner loan from student finance which isn't repaid until I'm earning over the threshold, same as uni student loans. The loan is wiped if I graduate from uni. I found this a better option than paying out 1000 pounds plus for an online one. Plus I had the support of college tutors to hand as I needed mainly distinctions.

Dental Hygiene - access to higher education diploma

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