Is Level 6 a degree? The full answer

An honours degree in England is built from 360 credits, of which at least 90 sit at Level 6; the rest are earned at Levels 4 and 5 in the first two years.² A typical Level 6 diploma on this site is 120 credits, every one of them at Level 6. So the diploma holder has done more Level 6 work than the degree's minimum, and none of the Level 4 and 5 work that a degree student did first.

Whether that matters depends on what the qualification is for. A university admitting to a final year cares mostly about the Level 6 credit and the subject match. A recruiter running a filter for "degree or equivalent" may care about neither, and simply want a degree.

In the United Kingdom the word degree in an award title is reserved to institutions that hold degree-awarding powers, granted by Privy Council or, more recently, by the Office for Students. Awarding organisations regulated by Ofqual, which is what OTHM and Qualifi are, do not hold those powers and do not claim them. Their Level 6 awards are called diplomas because that is what they are.

This is not a slight on the diploma. It is a different kind of award from a different kind of body, judged to the same standard of demand. Confusion arises only when the two are described as interchangeable, which is why we do not use the phrase degree-equivalent anywhere on this site.

From what learners report back to us, these are the situations in which a diploma is not accepted where a degree would be. We list them so that you can rule yourself out before enrolling, not after.

• Immigration and visa routes that specify a bachelor's degree, or a qualification assessed as equivalent to one by a recognised comparison service. Check the exact wording of the route with the authority concerned; do not rely on ours.
• Regulated professions: teaching, nursing, social work, accountancy membership, chartered status. Each has its own entry regime and none of the diplomas here is an approved route into one.
• Postgraduate admission where a university's regulations require an honours degree and do not admit on experience or on a Level 6 diploma alone. Many do admit that way; some do not.
• Employer criteria fixed in policy, typically in large graduate schemes and public bodies, where "degree" is a gate that a recruiter cannot open by judgement.

And these are the situations in which, in our experience of advising applicants, it is accepted, or is the very thing being looked for:

• Admission with advanced standing to the final year of a related bachelor's degree, where the university recognises the award. This is the route this site exists to explain; see top-up degrees.
• Employers and roles that ask for study "at degree level" or "Level 6" rather than for a degree, which is common in management, care, logistics and safety practice.
• Entry to a Level 7 diploma, and thereafter to a master's top-up, on the strength of the Level 6 award and relevant experience.
• Promotion cases within an organisation that already knows your work and wants evidence you can operate at the next level.

On a CV or an application form, write the award as the awarding body names it: OTHM Level 6 Diploma in Business Management (Ofqual 603/2179/9), for example, with the year and the centre. Do not write "BA equivalent". If a form asks for your highest level of education, "Level 6 (bachelor's level)" is accurate; "bachelor's degree" is not.

Asked about it in an interview, the honest and useful answer is short: it is a regulated qualification at the same level as a final-year degree, taken part-time while working, assessed by assignments on your own organisation. Then talk about what you wrote.