'Across the UK, thousands of international students take access and foundation courses every year. They offer the chance to improve your English skills, as well as prepare you for higher education.'
Foundation and access courses can help fill the gap between qualifications you may already have from your home country and those required by UK colleges and universities. They are often the first step towards UK higher education for many international students.
Many courses are designed to help you improve your English language skills and gain a better understanding of UK culture and study methods. There are many different options on offer, and it's important to think about what you would like to achieve after completing the course as early as possible to ensure that your chosen pathway is available. The most commonly available courses are detailed below:
Improving your English skills
Improving your English skills
Thousands of international students come to the UK every year to improve their English skills. Options range from short, intensive summer schools to longer, award-bearing courses.
You can find out more on the English language study in the UK pages.
International Foundation Year
You can find out more on the English language study in the UK pages.
International Foundation Year
Some UK further education colleges and universities offer International Foundation Year (IFY) programmes that lead to internationally recognised UK qualifications such as AS-levels or BTEC Nationals. These one-year courses follow the full UK programme of academic study, but offer language tuition as well. IFY courses tend to focus on subject areas, such as art and design or travel and tourism, for example.
Foundation Year Programmes
If you have a good level of English and want to spend your foundation year alongside students from the UK, you could follow a foundation year programme. These help you gain skills in subjects such as engineering, nursing, medicine and business, and usually lead directly to undergraduate degree programmes. Foundation years are aimed at students who have never studied the subject before or whose qualifications fall slightly short of those needed for university study. Foundation degrees are a good chance to boost your UCAS grades.
Access to higher education diploma
You may encounter UK colleges and universities advertising access to higher education courses that are accredited by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and displayed on the UCAS website. These are chiefly designed for adult learners returning to education. If you are planning on taking an access course, check that it accepts international students as some are for UK nationals only. Certain UK access courses offer English language classes too.
You can search for UK foundation, access and English language courses using the course finder, to the top-right.
