Certificate of Higher Education
A Certificate of Higher Education is a higher education qualification in the United Kingdom.
It is awarded after one year of full-time study 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 then perceived more vocational qualification, the Higher National Certificate. However, Universities have since seamlessly intergrated both qualifications into the first year of an undergraduate honours degree and now can be interpreted as both being equivalent academically. Prior to 2015 it was equivalent to an NVQ Level 4. In Scotland, a CertHE is at Level 7 on the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
A CertHE is not externally regulated but is accredited by a university itself. On completion, students are permitted to use the postnominals CertHE after their name, 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.
A CertHE is worth 120 credits; 60 within the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System.
A Diploma of Higher Education is worth 240 credits, of which 120 credits must be at Level 4 with a minimum of 80 credits at Level 5. A DipHE is equivalent to the first two years of an undergraduate degree.
An undergraduate degree comprises a minimum of 360 credits.
