academic qualifications

I understand that all  UKdegree coursees have different qualifications, but I was wondering about general qualification to be accepted at university.  Is a high school diploma from a US high-school enough to be accepted as a mature, international student?  There have been some posts that indicate that a diploma was all that was needed, but others saying that an AA is what is needed.  Any thoughts here?

The short answer: it varies.  Contact universities you're interested in and see what they have to say.  We have a few folks on this forum who have gone to the UK for an undergrad course- hopefully they'll pop by and share their experiences!

It does vary, but I got very little help from contacting the universities themselves.  My qualifications are pretty specific:  I had a HS diploma from a "gifted school", some seriously crappy grades (like a 2.0) from my first go at college, and an AP US History score of 4, an SAT score of 1330, 2.5 years experience as a legal secretary with a few courses provided by my firm, and... that's kind of it.

None of that matched what the requirements for the Uni of Manchester law programme and i got in anyway.  I did NOT get accepted to Leeds, but I did to University of Manc, Man Met, and University of Westminster in London. 

I didn't hold out much hope, but I was pleasantly surprised.  I eventually gave up on the universities and just filled out the UCAS application and crossed my fingers.  It can't hurt to try to call them, but don't get too downhearted if they don't help you as much as you'd like.  I put up my experience to show the haphazard qualifications that got me in.  If you have any questions, just PM me!

Seems like there is quite a variance.  I've seen in other theads that international students are very welcome because they are paying full price.  That is probably a very general statement.  I would hope they have summer classes that can be completed before Semester One in order to bring a student up to speed.  Which may be good for a mature student like me trying to get back into the academic groove.