A Certificate of Higher Education (Cert.H.E./CertHE) is a higher education qualification in the United Kingdom.
Overview
The Certificate is awarded after one year of full-time study (or equivalent) at a university or other higher education institution, or two years of part-time study. A CertHE is an independent tertiary award, an award in its own right, and students can study for a CertHE in various academic disciplines.
At Level 4 on the national qualifications framework for England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the CertHE was once viewed as the academic equivalent of the Higher National Certificate, which was perceived to be vocational. However, universities have since integrated both qualifications into the first year of an undergraduate honours degree and they now can be considered equivalent academically. Prior to 2015, the CertHE was equivalent to an NVQ Level 4. In Scotland, a CertHE is at Level 7 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
On completion, students are permitted to use the postnominals CertHE, sometimes followed by the course name in brackets and the university from which they earned their qualification.
Sometimes, having a CertHE can exempt the holder from some of the requirements of a bachelor's degree; for example, it might reduce the length of study by one or two years, or reduce the number of courses necessary to complete the qualification.
Comparison with other qualifications
A Certificate of Higher Education (CertHE) is equivalent to the first year of a bachelor's degree which is any Level 4 qualification.
A Diploma of Higher Education (DipHE) is equivalent to the second year of a bachelor's degree or any Level 5 qualification.
See also
References
- ^ "Higher National Certificates and Higher National Diplomas". Archived from the original on 15 October 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
- "Types of courses available at higher education level". UCAS. Archived from the original on 5 June 2013. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
- "What qualification levels mean". GOV.UK. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
- "Communicating the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF)" (PDF). scqf.org.uk. August 2016. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
| Levels of academic degree | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate |
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| Postgraduate |
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| Other |
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| Qualifications and Credit Framework in England and Wales and Northern Ireland | |
|---|---|
| Level 8 | Doctorate |
| Level 7 | Master's degree, Postgraduate Certificate in Education |
| Level 6 | Bachelor's degree |
| Level 5 | Bachelor's degree, Foundation degree, Diploma of Higher Education, Higher National Diploma |
| Level 4 | Bachelor's degree, Foundation degree, Certificate of Higher Education, Higher National Certificate |
| Level 3 | A-Level, BTEC Extended Diploma, BTEC National Certificate |
| Level 2 | GCSE (grades 9–4 or A*–C), BTEC First Diploma |
| Level 1 | GCSE (grades 3–1 or D–G), BTEC First Diploma, Foundation Diploma |
| Entry 3 | Key Stage 3, E3 Diploma |
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