Starting over. Degree planning help requested

[Jonathan Whatley]

Here in Canada, there are two online universities, Athabasca and Thompson Rivers, I would have gone with them as it would've been a better option financially. But they require you to do 2 years (60 credits) with them on top of the fact that you can't accelerate through terms.

The Bachelor of General Studies (BGS) from Athabasca, alone among Athabasca degrees, does not have a residency requirement.

[PearsonOTHMQualifi7654]

I haven't looked into the UK model, but are there CBE programs like TESU, WGU and the like? 

The UK provides Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), or Recognition of Certificated Prior Learning, Recognition of Experiential Learning, etc., which are various terms used to describe it. 

This can be applied towards part of the prerequisites to the Top-up year. To be admitted to a UK Bachelor's degree top-up final year, one must first earn a Level 5 Extended Diploma ('Extended' - meaning it's level 4 + 5) or separately a Level 4 and then a Level 5 diploma (it's really the same level qualifications, packaged separately or together). Some students like getting a Level 4 and then a Level 5, others like to get 1 Diploma when they complete the whole thing. For experienced professionals who have a lot of credits already I think it makes sense to go for the extended diploma and see how many exemptions will be provided so you can finish it rather quick. Top-up Bachelor's degrees are full bachelor's degrees.

At that point you would go on to complete level 6, which is the final year of the UK Bachelor's degree - not too many courses to complete, 4-8 courses at this point, depending on the Credit Size of each course.  Some students don't do the Bachelor's top-up year, and instead do a Level 6 diploma in its place for very little tuition in comparison (GBP 6k for a top up BSc versus GBP 1k for a Final Year Level 6 Diploma). 

Although the less expensive diploma route doesn't get them a full bachelor's degree, in the UK, when one holds diplomas at levels 4,5,6, that is equivalent to holding a UK Bachelor's degree and works for employment as well as for graduate school admission. Once I earned the Level 5 Extended Diploma, I was tempted to do just the Level 6 diploma instead of the Final year BSc Top-up, but ended up doing both. The diploma was a backup plan.

I've found Chesnut Education to be a great provider of UK Government-regulated (OfQual) diplomas and university progression partnership programs.

There is also Westford, Online Business School UK, LSIB UK, LCPS, LCFP, Trinity Open Learning, etc., and many others that provide diplomas, but I have found that Chestnut Education, with its administration of the Qualifi UK diploma system, to be the most open to recognizing prior credit/competence-based recognition.

This is a really great visual from Qualifi that helps explain the Levels and Degree Completion pathways
https://qualifi.net/example-pathways/

"Candidates with no prior academic or vocationally related higher education qualifications can utilise the Prior Learning, Achievement and Experience procedure in recognising skills and knowledge, accredit learning and enable access to a qualification pathway at the appropriate level." - Meaning they will take into account the actual skills learned and demonstrated on the job, as well as applicable trainings and certifications, even if they weren't university credit programs.

This is quite similar to the VAE system in France, however, with VAE it seems like one has to present a case before a jury, with book 1 (Livre 1) of all the qualifications, and book 2 (Livre 2) is where you provide evidence and actual case studies of job performance that demonstrate equivalence to having mastered the course subjects required to graduate. 

An entire degree can be earned via VAE, but I can see why, because it involves a LOT. 

RPL is only for partial exemptions toward a degree, not full exemption. Personally, I think VAE sounds as difficult as doing all the courses , and RPL is way simpler.

[WDue]

@Jonathan: Thanks! I had no idea that existed, though with it being just the one degree, I hope in the future they'll expand their offerings, maybe even CBE programs.

@PearsonOTHMQualifi7654: Thanks for the detailed write up! It seems a key difference between European education and North American education is the ability to not only incorporate professional skills as credit (I read that some U.S. universities do this) but to also offer segmented learning. Basically like an associates, but you can earn one at each level to eventually make it a bachelor's. I agree with you on the VAE system, it sounds like the equivalent of testifying your knowledge to earn a degree, haha!