How long is the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management?

The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management runs 15 to 18 months full-time, with online and distance routes flexing study around existing delivery and project-coordination roles.

Can the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management be studied online?

Yes. The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management is taught on-campus near the City, fully online with live project clinics, or by distance learning with structured monthly milestone deadlines.

Is the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management recognised in the UK?

The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management is aligned with APM and PMI competencies, with PRINCE2 and Scrum embedded — credentials UK consultancies, banks and the GDS immediately recognise.

What are the entry requirements for the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management?

An Advanced Diploma, HND, Foundation Degree or three years' delivery experience, plus IELTS 6.0 for non-native English speakers, will admit you to the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management.

How much does the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management cost?

Fees for the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management vary by study mode and domicile. Employer-sponsored places and instalment plans are available — contact LSCT admissions for the current schedule.

Higher Diploma IT Project Management from 2026 | LSCT | Harold International College of London

Course Overview

The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management at LSCT is a Level 5 qualification within the Information Technology department, designed for junior project managers, Scrum coordinators and business analysts ready to take ownership of medium-sized delivery workstreams. The programme runs 15 to 18 months across on-campus, online and distance-learning routes from 2026, and is taught from our central London base — minutes from the consultancies of the City and the Government Digital Service in Holborn.

Across the year you move from delivery mechanics into the harder middle-management work: shaping a project before it starts, building a credible plan, running a steering committee, recovering an at-risk programme and managing dependencies across multiple Agile teams. By the end of the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management you will be able to chair a real-style governance meeting, write a board-quality status report and walk into a project-manager interview at a UK bank, consultancy or healthtech.

Key Features

UK Level 5 syllabus aligned with APM (Association for Project Management) and PMI competencies, with PRINCE2 Practitioner and Scrum content embedded.
Direct articulation into the LSCT BSc in IT Project Management top-up — no credit lost.
Three study modes — on-campus near the City, fully online with live project clinics, or distance learning with structured monthly milestone deadlines.
Live recovery exercise — students take on an at-risk programme mid-stream and present a recovery plan to a panel of working PMs.
Module on UK public procurement covering G-Cloud, DPS and the GDS service standard.
Mentor pairing with a working London PM throughout the programme.

What You Will Learn

The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management runs across seven modules and a capstone delivery project. You will graduate able to scope, plan, run, recover and close projects across waterfall, Agile and hybrid models.

Project Initiation, Scoping and Benefits Cases
Planning, Estimation and Dependency Management
Agile, Scrum and Kanban at Scale
Risk, Issue and Change Management
Programme and Portfolio Coordination
Steering Governance and Status Reporting
UK Public Procurement and GDS Service Standard

The teaching pattern is intentionally practitioner-led. Each module pairs taught content with at least one hands-on lab — real tooling, real data, real code review — and you are expected to push pull requests, write incident reports and defend technical decisions in code review. That working rhythm gives our graduates the day-one credibility UK engineering, security and data employers want, and is part of why so many of our students take offers before they finish.

Who This Course Is For

Junior project managers, Scrum coordinators and business analysts moving into project-manager appointments.
Advanced Diploma graduates topping up to a Level 5 credential before a BSc in IT Project Management.
Working delivery managers wanting structured grounding in APM and PMI frameworks for chartered progression.
International applicants targeting UK delivery roles requiring a recognised Level 5 credential.

Career Pathways

Higher Diploma graduates step into project-manager appointments at UK banks, consultancies, fintech, public-sector delivery teams and the major SaaS employers. The Higher Diploma in IT Project Management is calibrated to make you ready for a Project Manager interview on graduation. Typical first roles include:

Project Manager (in-house or consultancy)
Agile Delivery Manager / Scrum Master
Business Analyst (delivery-track)
PMO Analyst (programme office)
Junior Programme Manager
Delivery Lead (GDS-style civil service)

The Higher Diploma articulates directly into the LSCT BSc in IT Project Management and the MSc in Computer Science for students wanting a deeper technical specialism. Where industry placements are arranged, our placement coordinators take a hands-on role in matching students to the right host organisation, briefing the student on workplace expectations, and following up after the placement to make sure the experience converts into the references, network contacts and professional confidence that show up at interview.

You will also build the network that underpins UK technology careers: an alumni community across fintech, healthtech, retail tech and the public-sector engineering teams, a working tutor team drawn from current production engineering, and an annual industry careers afternoon at which UK technology hiring managers take CVs and book follow-up conversations with current students.

Entry Requirements

An Advanced Diploma (Level 5), HND, Foundation Degree, or equivalent prior study in IT, project management or business.
Three years' relevant work experience in delivery, project coordination or analysis considered in lieu of academic prerequisites (mature applicants).
English language: IELTS 6.0 overall (no band below 5.5) for non-native English speakers.
A personal statement and one academic or professional reference, ideally from a project line manager.

Across the programme you also sit alongside working engineers, security analysts and product leads in regular guest sessions — practitioners from the City, Old Street and King's Cross who walk you through what real production systems, real incident reviews and real engineering interviews look like. The London tech labour market moves quickly, and our syllabus is reviewed annually to keep pace with the tools and patterns UK employers actually hire on.

Why Study at LSCT

The London School of Commerce and Technology (LSCT) is a specialist higher-education provider based in central London and part of Harold International College. We teach in small cohorts so every student is visible to their tutor, run a single intake schedule that students can rely on, and partner with UK professional bodies so qualifications carry weight with employers. London puts Whitehall, the City, Silicon Roundabout, the Royal Courts of Justice, the West End and the NHS estate within a short tube ride of every classroom — and our students use that proximity in their projects, placements and graduate job hunts. For IT project-management students that proximity is decisive: the major consultancies, the GDS and every City bank's transformation team recruit PMs continuously.

Our graduates work across the UK technology economy — fintech, healthtech, retail tech, the Government Digital Service, the consulting houses and the consumer-app teams that define London's product cluster. LSCT's employability team keeps an annual employer map current and runs portfolio-review evenings attended by working hiring managers from the major UK product, engineering and security teams.

Apply for Higher Diploma in IT Project Management

Close the gap to a Bachelor's degree with the Higher Diploma in IT Project Management. Click Enrol Now to apply; admissions confirm your credit-transfer route within one working day and will map your existing delivery experience to APM exemption opportunities.