'Access and Foundation Courses - want to improve your English or prepare for a particular course?'
Thousands of international students participate in access and foundation courses across Britain every year. You may want to consider foundation study to fill the gap between the qualifications you have and those required by the UK college or university where you want to study.
Another reason would be to improve your English language skills or gain a better understanding of British culture and study methods. Many access and foundation courses are universally recognised, accepted routes to degree-level study.
Choosing an access or foundation course
There are many types of foundation and access course to choose from, so it’s important to think carefully about what you want to achieve and what you’d like to pursue afterwards.
Improving your English skills
If you’re looking for a course with a strong emphasis on language skills, you may want to choose a specialist language school where all the students are international, or an international foundation course at a further education college. These courses will often give you the chance to improve your IELTS score to the level required for university entry. Most courses accept students with scores of at least IELTS 4.0 and aim to improve these to IELTS 6.0 or 6.5, the level required by UK universities.
If your English language skills are very basic, consider the shorter, more intensive language courses or summer schools that are available. During your course, you will develop your language skills while gaining an introduction to UK culture, study skills and research skills. You will probably live with other international students in halls of residence or hostels, or maybe with a local family.
Not all these courses lead to a formal UK qualification, but most of them focus on a specific academic subject, such as business or science. You will also find that many schools and colleges have agreements with UK universities that may make it easier to gain a place on an undergraduate degree course.
International Foundation Year
Some British further education colleges also 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. Your study group might consist solely of international students or there may be some British students there as well.
IFY courses tend to focus on subject areas such as art and design, computing, engineering, and travel and tourism. For example, you may be able to study towards a BTEC National Certificate for IT Practitioners in conjunction with an AS-level in business or mathematics. Or you may opt for a BTEC Diploma Foundation Studies in Art and Design.
Although the subject you’re studying might be familiar to you, in Britain you are likely to approach it from a new perspective with new methods. To enrol, you must be at least 17, have a good standard of English (usually IELTS 4.5 or 5.0) and should have completed a standard high-school education with good grades in your home country.
A number of further education colleges have progression agreements to undergraduate degree courses at local universities, so it's worth checking whether your college of choice has any such arrangements..
Many universities in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland also offer IFY programmes. If you choose one of these you may not receive a formal qualification, however, it could lead to an undergraduate degree course at that institution.
The IFY programme may have different entry points during the year, allowing you to complete one, two or three academic terms depending on your existing qualifications and language skills. On top of the academic modules, it often includes study skills and UK cultural information.
As with further education colleges, your academic study takes place alongside English language training aimed at getting you to IELTS 6.0 to 6.5 by the end of the course. You will usually need at least IELTS 4.5 to start the course.
At further education colleges and universities, IFY programmes often consist of ‘pathways’. These are designed to prepare you for courses in particular subject areas. For example, if you are on a business pathway, you may be able to progress to a degree in mathematics, economics or financial studies. Other pathways include humanities, arts and social sciences, and science, technology and medicine.
Some IFY courses are administered by a university, but taught at a local partner college. If this is the case, you will normally have access to university facilities, such as libraries and language laboratories, as well as those at the partner college.
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 aimed at all students.
These help you gain skills in subjects such as engineering, nursing, medicine and business, and usually lead directly to specific undergraduate degree programmes.
Foundation years are aimed at students who have never studied the subject before or whose qualifications fall short of those needed for a degree course. For example, entry requirements for a foundation year in engineering can be up to 100 UCAS points lower than for entry into the first year of an undergraduate degree in the same subject at the same institution. If you successfully finish your course, you may be able to enter the degree programme linked to it in a four‑year programme of continuous study.
Access to a higher education diploma
You may find UK colleges and universities that advertise Access to HE courses which are accredited by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) and displayed on the UCAS website. These are chiefly designed for adult learners who are returning to education after spending some time in work.
While some of these courses cater for international students and provide English language classes, some are designed for UK nationals only. If this is the study route you’d like to take, check whether the course you are considering is suitable for international students.
