(Urgent) CertHE impact on university application

'Failing' at one Uni is not a great look when you are reapplying and you need to be realistic about your chances of an offer. You must declare your previous Uni study, and your referee will need to explain why you left your first University. Any Uni you are applying to may want to see your Uni grade transcript and may want a detailed reference from that Uni.
Are you applying for a different Uni subject, and are you now applying to less ambitious Unis?

Looking at Biochemistry instead as it’s less maths. Thanks for the reply that’s interesting to hear. I thought me being at university for a year would be a positive thing as i have an extra qualification what people who are coming straight from sixth form wouldn’t have. So do you think I would have to apply to places with lower than ABC grades as the ‘fail’ makes me a worse candidate?

I suggest that you contact the Unis you intend to apply to, explain very honestly why you failed your first attempt and ask if its worth you applying. If it was because 'I didn't try hard enough' etc then they are more likely to be forgiving, but if its anything else (behaviour or illegality) then they may be more hesitant as they have an obvious 'duty of care' to existing students and staff,
How long ago did you sit A levels?
When did you leave your last Uni?
Did you have the opportunity to resit exams or repeat the year?

An important thing to take into consideration is that I failed one of my exams, was offered a resit, also failed that and was required to withdraw and they didn’t want to leave me empty handed so that’s why they gave me the CertHE. So does it not look as if i just did a year then dropped out? I’m not saying i’m gonna lie to them i’m just saying is it actually that relevant why i’m not there, wouldn’t they just look at my application then reject/accept. Again, I don’t understand this situation at all so i apologise if i sound stupid right now, i’m just trying to make sense of it all. And to answer your questions,
I sat A levels in 2024.
I left my uni this summer.
As explained above I also failed the resit.

With the Xmas/NY break there is probably not time to contact each potential Uni before you apply. I'd suggest that you are very realistic about the level of Uni you are applying to - ie. if the last one was RG or similarly competitive and you couldn't cope with that, then you need to be aiming far lower this time. I'm also wondering why you are thinking of reapplying for a very similar subject when clearly Chemistry was a struggle.
You need to get your application organised quickly - the closing date for your fully completed application is 14 Jan - that incudes your reference. You will need your UCAS referee to be very honest in their explanation about why you are restarting degree study - do not try to hide anything. The Cert HE doesnt replace your A levels and its at best an 'only just pass' so it is not going to help your application 'look better'. If you aim at BBB entry requirements you may find something better suited to you, and where they may be willing to give you a second chance.

So if you're changing subject then in principle most universities will not necessarily hold a "false start" elsewhere in a different subject against you. If the subject is very closely related though that might raise some questions. I think in this case biochemistry is fairly distinct (as in the UK biochemistry degrees are fundamentally bioscience degrees).That said your rationale for choosing it in relation to the area you struggled with in your chemistry degree doesn't seem to quite tally for me - you will need to do maths in a biochemistry degree, and in fact in any science degree.
What specifically is it from the chemistry degree maths that you struggled with? Is this really something you would not need to manage in a biochemistry degree? What other courses have you considered? Is your rationale for choosing biochemistry just "it's chemistry with less maths" and if so, is this actually an accurate reflection of the course (it's not)?
Note I would highlight - having the CertHE or not is not the issue here and I don't believe the qualification itself won't impact on whether you are accepted or not. It's the prior study which is a relevant consideration (and you would need to declare that anyway - whether you got the exit award or not). Whether you withdrew from the course after 1 year without receiving an exit award or opted to receive the CertHE I don't believe would make a difference here for admissions purposes (although, it might for funding/SFE...more below on that). So I don't think it will negatively impact an application per se.
However, equally I don't think the CertHE is going to change the entry criteria in terms of A-levels in this case. So you need to be looking at courses your A-levels correlate to the entry criteria for; if you want to apply to courses with higher entry criteria then as above you'll need to contact them and see if your CertHE may hold any water, but given in this case it's an exit award I don't think it will make the difference you're hoping there. That is, I don't think it will positively impact an application which seems to be what you are hoping for.
In terms of SFE funding - you'll have reduced funding due to prior study, which assuming you just did the one year will eat up your "gift year". Now I believe that the CertHE should still allow you to get the full funding (minus the gift year due to the prior study) for a BA/MSci/etc as it's a lower level qualification, but I would strongly recommend you confirm this with SFE just so you fully understand what you will be expecting for next year funding wise.

I appreciate your concerns on me being more realistic. However, please don’t worry I’ll figure that out myself. All i’m here for is to just understand how much this situation i’m in affects my application for 2026. For example I would like to go to university A but now i would have to go to university B instead. I just don’t want to apply for universities i would never get accepted by simply because i didn’t understand the situation I was in. The university i was at before was warwick if that helps

Thank you for your response, so to summarise you believe that the CertHE and ‘fail’ wouldn’t really affect my application much and should apply pretty much based on my A-level results? Another thing I would like to ask about is clearing, as that is the reason I got into warwick in the first place despite getting ABC. Is this still an option? would my fail or CertHE get in the way of clearing or would it be the same as when i did it last time?

I think yes, you should choose unis on the basis of your A-level grades - you'll need to declare your year of study at the other uni and that you received an exit award of a CertHE in your UCAS form, but I don't think it's going to necessarily help nor hinder an application. I would imagine they will view it just as a blip, you picked the wrong subject, struggled with it, and ultimately came out with an exit award.
I'm not sure why you think having a CertHE would prevent you from applying through clearing?
You've not really addressed the issues I raised around your proposed degree subject, although I hope you do give that some thought as to which degree you ultimately pursue. But in general terms regardless of the degree subject you apply to (provided it isn't chemistry) the above would generally be the case I expect?

Thanks again for the insight, I appreciate it a lot. As for your concerns about biochemistry still involving maths, i understand this is something I can’t avoid. However I feel that it is not extreme as chemistry where 50% of the course is maths and I was part of the 5-10% of students taking chemistry who didn’t study A-Level Maths. Another thing to note is that despite how bad i made it sound, i didn’t entirely struggle on the maths overall. Like previously stated I had 68% overall on my first year, did well on all the other modules maths, it was just that one specific module which I struggled and failed the exam. Honestly just feel that I had a really bad exam and drastically changing my choices based on the one specific area I failed is slightly disingenuous and doesn’t exactly tell the full story. Please don’t take that as an attack, I understand your point, many people have told me the same thing.