24TH JAN 2025
Why study Access to Higher Education at GC?
Returning to education is a fantastic way of improving your prospects if you’re looking to upskill or start a career in something new. Access to Higher Education courses help you transition back into the classroom whilst gaining the study skills and knowledge you need to move onto higher education.
Once completed, you’ll be able to move onto a higher education course at GC, or at university. We currently offer three pathways for Access to Higher Education (HE):
- Health and Human Sciences: for nurses, midwives, paramedics, occupational therapy, radiographers, physiotherapists and allied healthcare.
- Science: for medicine; veterinary science; dentistry; engineering; computer science and all science-based degrees.
- Humanities and Social Science: for law degrees; English degrees; social work; psychology; sociology; criminology and any humanities degrees.
Did you know...? 70% of our students move into nursing and allied healthcare degrees.
The courses are structured with busy families in mind and allow for study around other commitments. Most students attend college for two days a week, with classes beginning at 9:30am and finishing at 3pm to work around school hours. For students who have younger children, there is also an onsite nursery at our Cheltenham campus.
With the move onto higher education a priority, our students are given full support with UCAS applications and careers advice from our knowledgeable teams and local university partners. The University of Gloucestershire Allied Healthcare Admissions team visit to give advice on personal statements and interviews, whilst University of Bristol offers the Access to Bristol scheme, where students receive help from reduced university offers and are guaranteed interviews.
Access to HE at Gloucestershire College is taught by friendly and experienced subject specialist tutors, who have helped hundreds of student progress over the years. Our most recent feedback from June 2022 was overwhelmingly positive:
- 100% of students agreed that they enjoyed the course; that the teaching on the course was good and that tutor feedback helped them improve their grades.
What’s more, pass rates for Access to HE at GC are consistently above the national average. Most recent figures show the overall national success rate in 2020-21 was 63.6% (QAA National Statistics), whereas the success rate for GC Access students was 89% in the same year.
Where could Access to HE courses take you?
Recently, our students have progressed onto university courses at the likes of Bristol, Exeter, Cardiff, and Warwick, SOAS, Goldsmiths College London, Birmingham City, Nottingham, York and Reading. They also progressed to local universities such as University of Gloucestershire, University of the West of England and University of Worcester.
They’ve been studying degrees in areas such as nursing, midwifery, paramedic science, primary school teaching, psychology, criminology, veterinary science, dental hygiene, politics, media and communications, literature, law, cognitive neuroscience, business management and many more!
Want to know more? Hear from some of our recent students:
“Getting proper instruction and feedback on how to write academically.”
“I learned a lot about things I didn't think I would learn. The course boosted my confidence.”
“I enjoyed getting back into education with quality teaching.”
“I liked the pace of the course as it kept me motivated to work.”
“I liked learning new things and realising I could do it.”
“Brilliant course to help people who have struggled with their education in their youth. Very helpful to send people into their chosen careers.”
“I enjoyed the pace of the course and how it was broken down into manageable chunks that allowed us to focus on individual topics.”
“As a group, we all got on really well and helped each other when we could. The peer support was great.”
Access to Bristol Scheme
This scheme is open to students within an hour of Bristol university (they prefer a BA or BS postcode). However, they will accept any students studying the Access to HE course at GC; we have been part of the scheme for many years due to great internal links and their widening participation scheme.
Students apply when the University of Bristol Mature Recruitment Advisor is invited to Cheltenham campus during the first week of September and the scheme is explained to students who are interested. The scheme includes entry to Medicine, Dentistry and Vet Science.
They attend a course at Bristol (a half day once a week for six weeks) where they do a variety of activities and interview techniques with admissions tutors in the various faculties. On completion, the students are guaranteed an interview and contextualised (lower) offer for their chosen course. They get to speak to the course tutors and current students in their subject area.
Students must possess the academic ability to study at Bristol and they must meet any GCSE entry requirements.
In some circumstances, students might be entitled to a non-repayable bursary of £3,855 maintenance grant each year.
