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Is an access to HE diploma worth it?

I am a student at Sheffield Hallam about to go into second year for Politics however I've been thinking a lot more about my future and what my degree will be worth compared to others. This has lead me to start debating whether or not I should drop out of Uni and do an access to higher education degree to try and get into somewhere better. Would this be worth doing?
Original post by Ethankwame
I am a student at Sheffield Hallam about to go into second year for Politics however I've been thinking a lot more about my future and what my degree will be worth compared to others. This has lead me to start debating whether or not I should drop out of Uni and do an access to higher education degree to try and get into somewhere better. Would this be worth doing?

If you're about to go into your second year at university, why would you want to do an Access course? How did you get accepted for university? I'm not 100% sure about this but I don't think you can get funding for an Access course if you've already done a Level 3 or higher.
University "brand name" really holds very little power these days, unless you are aiming to go into investment banking or a certain law firms. Since the aforementioned roles where it does make a difference make up maybe 1% of graduate jobs in the market, it's really an irrelevant consideration. Grad schemes at the vast majority of other firms and in other sectors will generally not care that much about it. You have just as much chance of getting into a grad scheme at a Big 4 accounting firm as someone who went to some "top tier" Russell Group university provided you make sure you get a good amount of relevant work experience before you graduate (along with the token 2:1 or above classification in your degree).

There's no point in dropping out to do an access course to try and "trade up" to a "better" university. You also may have issues with getting funding from SFE for a full degree if you do that. You would be best off focusing on doing very well in your current course to get a 2:1 or a 1st and actively pursuing every work experience/internship/placement/vacation scheme opportunity you can find. Between those two things you will be as employable if not more so than any other graduate.

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