Starting to think about what Higher Education options are available to you? Higher education can be done at universities, higher education colleges or some further education colleges.
Below are some of the more common courses you can take:
HNC/HND
These are work related courses, which focus on a specific area of employment such as Business or Engineering.
HNC is studied for one year full-time, HND for two years full-time. Both courses can be taken part-time over a longer period.
A HNC/HND, can lead into employment or onto a degree course.
Foundation Degree
Designed to give skills, experience and specialist technical knowledge employers want.
They mix academic and work-based learning.
Takes 2 years to complete full-time, they can also be studied part-time.
Typical courses focus on new technology, such as ICT, multimedia design, digital broadcasting and e-business.
Afterwards, you can move on to a related degree, or you may be able to take further professional qualifications in the workplace.
Honours Degree
These take 3 or 4 years (full-time), depending on the course. Sandwich degrees, which include a year on a placement linked to your study area, and language degrees usually last for 4 years.
Courses in Medicine, Veterinary Science, Dentistry and Architecture generally last for five years and a Teaching degree lasts either 3 or 4 years.
Degrees can be offered as:
- Single honours - when you study one major subject.
- Joint honours - when you study two major subjects.
- Combined honours - where you combine two or more subjects.
To see what qualifications counts towards university entry use the UCAS Tariff Table. It gives a point score to different grades and qualifications and equivalence between different types of qualifications.
