Introducing online professional courses — University of Essex Online

Whether you want to upskill, try out a new subject, or learn something new, an online professional course from the University of Essex Online can help. Dr Claire Ketnor, deputy academic director explains more

What is an online professional course?

These courses are stand-alone qualifications, which are great for professional development. They are all 13 weeks long, part time and delivered via our virtual learning environment. We have courses across a variety of disciplines including:

• business
• computing
• criminology
• education
• health
• law
• psychology.

All of the courses include a one-week induction to help you prepare for online study. The assessment is through assignments, such as discussion forums, written assignments and journal entries.  

The list of online courses we have on offer does change as we update and re-fresh our offering to reflect changes in industry. As of September 2025, courses include:

• Applied Forensic Psychology
• Deciphering Big Data
• Digital Learning and Inclusion
• Health Promotion
• International Business Law
• Management of Projects
• Mentoring and Coaching for Organisational Effectiveness.

Are these courses accredited and what qualifications do they lead to?

All of our programmes are accredited by the CPD Certification Service. You would get 20 academic credits at postgraduate level and a digital certificate on successful completion of an online professional course with us.

Completing one of these courses at the University of Essex Online enables you to go on to study on most of our PGCert, PGDip or full Masters courses (this could even be a different subject area). There are usually no additional qualifications needed - except for a few exemptions, such as needing to be licenced for clinical practice for MSc Nursing.

Taking one of these online courses is not only a route onto one of our longer postgraduate programmes without undergraduate study, but also a way to test the waters without initially committing to a longer programme.

What types of students would suit these courses?

Students study with us for a variety of reasons. Some learners enrol simply because they are interested in the subject. Online professional courses are particularly good for continuing professional development and upskilling. The part time and flexible nature of our courses means that students can fit their studies around other commitments.

We offer fantastic study support, which is available to everyone studying with us. Support can be accessed through our study support team who can support with areas such as academic writing, referencing, etc. This is particularly useful for those students who haven’t been in education for a while or have not done undergraduate study at all.

Support is also available through student advisors and tutors.

What advice do you have for anyone considering studying an online professional course?

• I would recommend having a look through the courses we have to offer at Online professional courses - University of Essex Online.Ìý
• If you're currently in employment, consider whether your employer may be willing to cover part or all of your online professional course fee. Before you enquire with your employer, we recommend having a really good look at how the course would benefit the company and would enable you to develop.
• Like all of our courses, we have a moneyback guarantee. This means that if you decide that you don't want to progress with the course within 14 days, then you would get a full refund. My advice would therefore be to give it a go.

Find out more

• Read all about online learning.
• Take a look at CPD opportunities for graduates.