What is a HNC (Higher National Certificate)?

HNC or Higher National Certificate courses are designed to equip you with both practical skills and theoretical knowledge in your chosen subject. They are vocationally focused and as such geared towards specific careers.

The completion of an HNC course in certain subjects can grant direct entry into the second year of a degree programme. Furthermore successful completion of an HNC course can allow entry to certain professional bodies such as ACCA, CIMA and CIM.

All HNC courses are made up of 12 Higher National Unit Credits and generally take one full time or 2 part-time years to complete. One Unit Credit is equivalent to 40 hours of learning.

The typical entry requirement for an HNC course is one of the following:

Two passes at Higher or above
GSVQ Level III
A programme of National Units relevant to the HNC course you wish to study.
An equivalent qualification.

Please see our course directory for the specific entry requirements for the course you are interested in.

At the City of Glasgow College we offer HNC courses across a number of subjects including Photography, Computing and Social Care. For our full list of HNC courses please see our course directory.

Click below for information on the other qualifications offered by the City of Glasgow College.