The new Scottish Group Awards, offered in 35 of the 45 colleges, are creating problems for students who want to move on to higher things, the survey found. This is known as the “Intermediate 2.5 issue”.
Group awards at Higher are said to be too demanding for entry into Higher National certificate and diploma courses, where the traditional requiement is for two Highers. Intermediate 2 level, on the other hand, is too low and if it was accepted for entry would undermine the carefully crafted place of HN courses in the new Scottish Credit and Qualifications framework.
Colleges want programmes that lie halfway between Intermediate 2 and Higher SGAs - hence “Intermediate 2.5”.
