UK - Advanced Diploma versus Bachelors

Is an Advanced Diploma the same as a Bachelors degree in the UK?

What are the similarities/differences in exit options?

Anything else one should think about if one doesn't have a bachelors, when deciding between the two?

 

Advanced Diploma is not the same/equivalent as a Bachelor degree in UK nor in US. Advanced Diploma is considered the 2/3 yrs in the UK University level before a full Bachelor degree is being conferred.

Kozen

 

One should think about other education options when one can't fulfill to complete the full-time study (3 years in UK/4 years in US) in their university life. In UK, education can be break up into 3 different levels which are Diploma (1 year), Advanced Diploma(2/3 years), and Bachelor degree(Final year) .

The differences and advantages of having completed all this diplomas are students will have the choice of taking a break in-between during their studies and they can look for a job, and continue their bachelor at the later date. Unlike in US, you can only have transcripts before your undergrad studies is completed.

Last, but not least...Advanced Diploma is considered having completed 90 credits in the Bachelor degree in US.


Kozen

 

The British use the word "diploma" to mean several different things, as near as I can tell.

It can mean completion of the first year of a three year University course, i.e. the Dipolma in Law from the University of London's external LL.B. programme.

It can also mean completion of roughly 2/3 of the requirements for a taught Master's degree, such as the Postgraduate Diploma in Laws in my own program.

It can mean completion of a year of postgraduate work in a field different than one's B.A. field, such as the PostGradute Diploma in Law (PgDL) that qualifies non Law graduates to enter the vocational stage of professional legal training.

 

As Nosbourne states - it isn't easy as currently titles such as 'Certificate' and 'Diploma' are not indicators of the level of a qualification. And the same is true even if you put 'advanced' in front of it.

Quite honestly most Brits wouldn't know where an advanced diploma /certificate would sit in comparison to a first degree without looking carefully, either at the programme specifications or the entrance requirements of the qualification or at where it sits on the person's CV.

For example I hold a Advanced Certificate (that has recently been renamed a Professional Diploma) - I always list this before my undergraduate honours degree as it's work related and in terms of level would have been similar to the last year of my undergraduate degree or the first few months of a masters degree.

What you really need to do is have a look at the programme specifications for the advanced diploma you are interested in. This should tell you what FHEQ level the qualification is at - for an explanation see
http://www.qca.org.uk/493.html about halfway down the page under the heading Structure of the NQF. Alternatively ask the awarding institution - it's usually obvious what level the qualification is at in terms of how it is marketed and what it is marketed alongside.

In short:
D level = Doctoral
M level = Masters
H level = Honours (undergraduate "Bachelors" level)
There are also I and C levels below this.

However also watch out for G level, this is an interim level between M and H. This is what my advanced certificate is - and may still be in common parlance - G stands for graduate.

N.B. This is a much simplified explanation, e.g. a Masters degree may contain H level units. However it should give you an idea.

In general it is going to come down to what you want the qualification for. The Bachelors degree probably has more utility and is more widely understood. However an Advanced Diploma might be better if you just want to cover a specific/specialist area and want a qualification for doing this.

All the best,

Brendan

 

Hello everyone, as the above discussion is very outdated, I though I should share some facts with you for 2021

1. The Undergraduate Advanced Diplomas exist in both Oxford and Cambridge primarily for progression to a Master's or Phd's at Oxford and Cambridge, according to the published data more than 2/3 of the students progress to postgraduate degrees at their Unis
2. They are considered the most selective degrees at their departments with the published stats of admission close to 12% for Oxford and 20% for Cambridge (but only 13,4% finds supervision for their research)
3. According to the WES in the US they are considered non honors bachelor's degree (statement 2019)
4. According to the UK FHEQ qualifications they are considered as FHEQ 6 qualifications therefore either Bachelor degrees or PostGraduate Diplomas. In general you will be able to apply to any postgraduate institution you like including Cambridge Oxford, Kings etc with these qualifications.
5. Cambridge offers two : in Research in the Arts/Sciences and in Economics and it recognizes them as ''second bachelor's degrees''
6. Oxford offers three in History ,Archeology, IT systems analysis and Diplomacy which produces (as normal) alumni benefits and college affiliation

In conclusion, these qualifications are unique and the fact that they are FHEQ 6 is really interesting. I think we should trust the data and be confident that these degrees are recognized as Cambridge states them ''second bachelor's degrees'' (source https://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/apply/diploma third row).

As for me I have never pursued them a colleague of mine did (we are both Phd's in Polis- Cambridge) and he progressed in MPhil after two years of studying the diploma as well as did a masters in HKS (even before WES's statement).

 

Very interesting!

Do you have any information how a Level 6 Diploma from an institution like, say, ATHE compares with that?