Cost comparison
Career programme or university degree?
Same entry level roles. One costs 93.5% less and takes a fraction of the time.
For most entry level IT and technical roles, a certification led career programme gets you to the same place as a degree, considerably faster and for a fraction of the cost. UK employers in IT support, cyber security, data and infrastructure hire on certification and demonstrated skill rather than on academic qualifications, and they name those certifications directly in job adverts.
The arithmetic is stark. A three year degree costs £29,370 in tuition alone at 2026/27 rates. Our Cyber Security Career Programme costs £1,899. That is 93.5 per cent less, and you finish in three to nine months rather than three years.
What we are not saying. A degree is worthless, or that nobody should go to university. For research, academia, graduate schemes and certain regulated professions, a degree is the right route and we will tell you so. This page is about one specific question: what is the fastest, cheapest way into an entry level technical role in the UK.
The two routes, side by side
Three year degree at the 2026/27 England tuition cap, against our Cyber Security Career Programme.
Three year degree
£29,370
Tuition alone, at £9,790 per year for 2026/27
- 36 months before you can apply for roles
- Add maintenance and the total borrowed commonly reaches £55,000 to £62,000
- Repaid at 9% of everything you earn above £25,000, for up to 40 years
- Interest accrues while you study
- Full time study, so limited scope to keep working
Cyber Security Career Programme
£1,899
Everything included, no separate registration or exam fees
- Most people finish in three to nine months
- No maintenance loan needed, because you keep working
- Pay in full, or spread it monthly with no lump sum
- No interest accruing against a 40 year debt
- Study around your existing job, self paced
93.5%
less than three years of tuition
£1,899 against £29,37096.9%
less than the full cost of a degree including maintenance
£1,899 against approximately £61,8606x
faster to reach the same entry level roles
Six months typical against 36 monthsTuition figure is the England fee cap for 2026/27 at £9,790 per year, confirmed by the Department for Education. Maintenance figure assumes £10,830 per year living away from home outside London. In London the maximum maintenance loan is £14,135 per year, taking the three year total above £71,000.
Every programme against a three year degree
Our full price against £29,370 of tuition. Maintenance costs are excluded from the degree figure, so the real gap is wider than the table shows.
| Programme | Our price | 3 year degree tuition | You save | Percentage less |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IT Support Technician | £1,095 | £29,370 | £28,275 | 96.3% less |
| Data Analyst | £1,799 | £29,370 | £27,571 | 93.9% less |
| Cyber Security Technician | £1,899 | £29,370 | £27,471 | 93.5% less |
| PRINCE2 Project Management | £2,695 | £29,370 | £26,675 | 90.8% less |
| AI and Data | £2,999 | £29,370 | £26,371 | 89.8% less |
Every one of our programmes costs less than four months of a degree. The IT Support programme at £1,095 is less than six weeks of undergraduate tuition.
The bit universities do not tell you
A significant proportion of our students already hold a degree. They come to us because the degree did not give them the specific skills the job advert asked for.
A degree teaches theory. Employers hire for practice.
A computer science degree covers algorithms, data structures, programming principles and computational theory. Genuinely valuable. It does not teach you to configure a firewall, administer Active Directory, respond to a security incident, run a vulnerability scan or troubleshoot a network fault at three in the morning.
Adverts name certifications, not degrees
Read twenty UK entry level IT and security job adverts and count how many name CompTIA Security+, Network+ or A+ by name. Then count how many name a specific degree. The certifications appear far more often, because they tell an employer precisely what you can do.
Graduates arrive with debt and no certifications
The common pattern we see: three years, tens of thousands of pounds of debt, a good degree, and an entry level application that gets filtered out because it does not mention the certification the advert asked for. Then they pay again to get it.
Doing it the other way round costs less
Certification first, then a role, then further study part time with employer support if you want it. Many UK employers fund degrees for staff. Very few universities fund your certifications.
Where a degree genuinely is the better choice
We would rather say this plainly than have you find out later. There are situations where university is the right answer and a career programme is not.
- Research, academia and anything requiring a masters or doctorateIf you want to work in research or teach at university level, a degree is not optional and no certification substitutes for it.
- Graduate schemesMany large employers run graduate schemes that require a degree, frequently a 2:1 or above. If a specific graduate scheme is your target, you need the degree to be eligible.
- Regulated professionsMedicine, law, engineering, architecture, teaching and others require specific accredited degrees. This page is about technical IT roles, not those.
- Deep specialisation in machine learning or data scienceData scientist and machine learning engineer roles typically expect a quantitative degree. Data analyst roles do not, which is a distinction worth understanding before you commit either way.
- You want the university experience itselfThree years, the network, the independence, the time to think. Those are real things with real value, and they are not something a nine month online programme replicates. If that is what you want, go and have it.
If any of the above describes you, we will say so on the phone rather than take the enrolment. It is a five minute conversation and it saves everybody time.
Common questions
Is a university degree or a career programme better for getting into IT?
It depends entirely on the role. For entry level IT support, cyber security analyst, data analyst and most technical roles, UK employers hire on certification and demonstrated skill rather than on a degree. A three year computer science degree costs £29,370 in tuition alone at 2026/27 rates and takes three years. A certification led career programme costs from £1,095 and most people complete in three to nine months, arriving at the same entry level roles. For research, academia, some graduate schemes and certain regulated professions, a degree is still the right route and we would say so.
How much does a UK degree actually cost in 2026?
The tuition fee cap for 2026/27 is £9,790 per year in England, so £29,370 for a standard three year degree. That is tuition alone. Add maintenance and the total borrowed over three years commonly reaches £55,000 to £62,000, and considerably more in London. Under Plan 5 you repay 9 per cent of everything you earn above £25,000 for up to 40 years.
How much cheaper is a career programme than a degree?
Our Cyber Security Career Programme is £1,899 against £29,370 of tuition for a three year degree. That is 93.5 per cent less, or roughly one fifteenth of the cost. Compared against the full cost of a degree including maintenance, at around £61,860, it is 96.9 per cent less. Our IT Support programme at £1,095 is 96.3 per cent less than three years of tuition.
How long does each route take?
A standard undergraduate degree is three years, or 36 months. Our career programmes give you 12 months of access and most people complete in three to nine months studying around a job. Someone starting a career programme in January can realistically be applying for roles by the summer, while a degree student would still have two and a half years remaining.
Do graduates still need certifications?
Frequently, yes, and this is the part that surprises people. A computer science degree teaches theory, algorithms and programming principles. It does not teach you to configure a firewall, respond to a security incident, administer Active Directory or run a vulnerability scan. Employers hiring into IT support, security operations and infrastructure roles ask for CompTIA, Microsoft and Cisco certifications by name in job adverts, and a degree does not substitute for them. A meaningful proportion of our students already hold degrees.
Will employers take a certification seriously without a degree?
In IT, yes. This is one of the few well paid UK sectors that genuinely hires on demonstrated capability rather than formal education. CompTIA, Microsoft, Cisco, EC-Council and (ISC)² certifications are recognised across the industry regardless of your educational background. Many senior people in UK IT and cyber security have no degree at all.
What does a degree give you that a career programme does not?
Several things, and we would rather list them honestly. Three years of structured academic study and the deeper theoretical grounding that comes with it. A recognised graduate credential that some employers and some countries still filter on. Access to graduate schemes, many of which require a 2:1 or above. The university experience itself, including the network. If any of those matter to you, a degree may well be the right choice and we would say so on the phone.
Can I do both?
Yes, and plenty of people do. Some take a certification first, get into an entry level role, then study part time later with employer support. Others graduate and then take a certification programme to make themselves employable in a specific technical role. The two are not mutually exclusive, and the order that suits you depends on your circumstances rather than on which is better in the abstract.
Same destination, a fraction of the cost
Every programme includes recognised certifications, a dedicated mentor while you study and recruitment support once you have passed. Tell us what you did before and where you want to end up, and we will tell you honestly which route fits, including if that route is university.
Tuition and maintenance figures are the published England rates for 2026/27 and are correct at the time of writing. Fees rise annually with inflation and the confirmed 2027/28 cap is £10,050 per year. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate separate systems. Certification improves your chances of being considered for a role and does not on its own set your pay. Full details of our accreditations and terms are on our credentials and evidence page.