How it works
How it works
Levels, assessment and testing, and what stays on your record.
Diploma levels
Every programme is styled simply as a “Diploma.”
Professional Diploma
Our standard three-year distance track. Practitioner-focused: it takes a subject from fundamentals to applied competence, assessed through coursework and a written final examination. Right for a first qualification in the field or a career change. Curriculum content is mapped against RQF Level 5 standards.
Advanced Diploma
Also three years, same fee — but with greater depth in the final year: a longer reading list, case-based assessment, and a supervised final project or dissertation-style paper in place of a single exam. Suited to subjects with more technical or analytical range, or students building on related prior study or work. Curriculum content is mapped against RQF Level 6 standards.
“Mapped against” describes how we design the syllabus — matching its depth and workload to the published RQF level descriptors. It is a curriculum benchmark, not a claim of regulation: see What a DF Business School Diploma Is and our Legal Notice.
Assessment & testing
How your work is checked, term by term.
Entry diagnostic
An optional written diagnostic, not a gatekeeping exam, used to place you correctly and flag where your first-year workload should focus. It does not decide admission.
Coursework
Each year is broken into marked assignments, submitted on a fixed termly schedule. Marks and written feedback are returned within four weeks.
Final assessment
Professional Diploma: a proctored written examination. Advanced Diploma: a supervised final project or dissertation-style paper, reviewed by two assessors.
Integrity & resits
Work is checked for originality before marking. A failed final assessment may be resat once, at a fixed resit fee, within twelve months.
Records & verification
What stays on file, and how to request it.
Your file
Coursework marks, attendance, and assessment results are kept on your student file for the length of your programme and for as long afterward as needed to stand behind a diploma we have issued.
Transcripts
Graduates may request a transcript or a duplicate certificate at any time by writing to admissions. The first copy each year is free; further copies carry a small administration fee.
Third-party verification
An employer or other third party may verify that a named diploma was genuinely awarded by DF Business School, with the graduate's written consent.
Request a verification
For employers or third parties, with the graduate's written consent on file.
Admissions & records
Verification requests are answered within five working days once the graduate's consent is confirmed.
- admissions@dfbusinessschool.co.uk