Qualification Levels

Tuesday, 8 March, 2016

Yes, it’s that time of year again - open days!! Applicants and parents trail around the country getting similar accommodation and finance talks, along with more detail on courses, facilities and location. It always surprises how seldom the qualifications framework is explained because it makes understanding university courses that much easier. So, here goes…

  • qualifications in the UK given levels from “entry”, through 1 to 8. A tabular summary can be found here
  • so GCSE (grades A*-C) are level 2, AS/A level 3 and an undergraduate degree 4, 5 and 6 (and for the record, Masters 7 and PhD 8)
  • to gain entry to a university you most commonly need tariff points at level 3, as per the UCAS website. 140 points for an A* at A level, going down in 20 point increments per grade
  • each level at university corresponds to a year (although there are some 2 and 4 year degrees), being worth 120 credit points each. 360 points make an honours degree
  • credit points are notionally transferable between universities as long as the courses are relevant
  • each point is equivalent a notional 10 hours of study, be it lecture, practical, seminar, fieldwork, assessment, reading, thinking, note taking etc
  • so a degree is 3600 hours of study, 1200 per year
  • Kingston has 30 credit modules, but universities operate a wide range of credit points for modules
  • this is reported at UNISTATS, a good source of comparative government information.
  • See our Geography degree and under “Time in lectures” you’ll note around 30% is actual contact



Hopefully that gives a good feel for the overarching structure!

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