The Janus of the Access to HE Diploma: Rethinking qualifications, units, credits and levels

Broadhead, Samantha ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9469-1233 (2022) The Janus of the Access to HE Diploma: Rethinking qualifications, units, credits and levels. In: Widening Access to Higher Education in the UK: Developments and Approaches: Using Credit Accumulation and Transfer. Open University Press. ISBN 9780335250592

Abstract

This chapter explores the impact the underpinning thinking around credit accumulation and transfer had on the Access to HE Diploma (AHED). At the time of writing AHED courses are validated by Access Validation Agencies (AVAs). The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) licences the AVAs across England and Wales (Busher, James and Suthill 2012; DfE 2020). Policy documents and reflections from students, access managers and educators were analysed to understand the strengths and weaknesses of unitised curricula and to what extent they enable access to higher education. The flexibility and responsiveness to adults’ needs of unitisation, credit value, and credit level are reconsidered within the context of the AHED. It is argued that although Access education and the unitisation of curricula are seen by many as supporting adult learning and widening participation, there are tensions and contradictions that have never been resolved. This has resulted in a qualification which, for some, is overly complex, bureaucratic and heavily assessed.

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