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What are course levels?

Levels are used in education to give an indication of how difficult a course is and how it builds on previous courses. The various courses you’ll take towards your qualification are set at different levels. For our undergraduate courses these are at Levels 1, 2 and 3 – roughly equivalent to studying full-time in the first, second and third year at a campus-based university. The study required at the final stage of a degree, for example, is Level 3.

We strongly recommend that you work progressively through the levels to build up your knowledge and skills. Usually, students begin at Level 1.

FHEQ, SCQF and NFQI levels

The table below shows how OU levels correspond to:

• the Framework For Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ) used in England, Wales and Northern Ireland,
• the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF), and
• the National Framework of Qualifications in the Republic of Ireland (NFQI).

Although different frameworks express complexity in different ways, they are broadly comparable.

Comparison of frameworks

OU course level	Typical level of learning	FHEQ level	SCQF level	NFQI level
Level 1	First stage of higher-education study	4	7	6
Level 2	Last stage of a foundation degree; middle stage of a bachelors degree	5	8 or 9	6 or 7
Level 3	Last stage of a bachelors degree	6	9 or 10	7 or 8
Masters	Masters degree	7	11	9
Doctoral	Doctorate	8	12	10

If you have an NVQ

If you have an NVQ level 4 or above, you may be able to count it towards an OU qualification. For more information about this see Building on previous study.

If you have NVQs at levels 1, 2 or 3, you can still study with the OU but you won’t be able to count these towards your OU qualifications. You should probably start with an Openings course.