Foundation Year

Hello

I took a foundation course and I'm so glad that I did this. Employers will love this as you've actually done a 4-year degree showing that you are dedicated and have a positive attitude.

You get to learn all the core subjects briefly but will prepare you for your degree. You will learn about plagiarism, TurnItIn system, get to know the library system, meet new friends, prepare presentations, reference, maths skills, etc etc.

So when you go into your first year you'll know everything and those poor students coming in for their first year will not. You'll have the advantage.

Whatever you decide I wish you all the best. Personally, for me, I feel so much more confident and so glad that I did a foundation.

Kind regards

Hiiii

Thank you sooo much for the reply!! If I missed the entry requirements by one grade would you say the foundation year is still worth doing over resitting the a level?

Kind regards

If you missed the entry requirements by only one grade, it's a shame the uni didn't let you in anyway but made you do the extra year. For people who have poor A levels, they are often better off resitting them rather than doing the foundation year, but if your A levels are decent and you really wanted to go to that particular uni, maybe it was a good option

Hello

I took a foundation course and I'm so glad that I did this. Employers will love this as you've actually done a 4-year degree showing that you are dedicated and have a positive attitude.

You get to learn all the core subjects briefly but will prepare you for your degree. You will learn about plagiarism, TurnItIn system, get to know the library system, meet new friends, prepare presentations, reference, maths skills, etc etc.

So when you go into your first year you'll know everything and those poor students coming in for their first year will not. You'll have the advantage.

Whatever you decide I wish you all the best. Personally, for me, I feel so much more confident and so glad that I did a foundation.

Kind regards

If you can just get onto the degree instead of doing a foundation then you should if you can saved you a lot of money that’s why I said call the uni I do know lots of students are getting places with just under points. You need to speak to the academic of that course

Kind regards

I don’t know if this was for me, and I forgot to mention Im an international student. it’s kind of important that I do a 4 year degree, I’ve been told that it looked better for some reason. I applied for university of Durham International Foundation year and they just reached me said that I was eligible for it.

Doing a Foundation degree at a 'good' Uni is a better idea than retaking A levels - especially if you are an Overseas student. You get an intro to UK study, and you are effectively guaranteed a place at that Uni for your degree - and for a place at Durham this is def. worth having. You leave with 'a degree' - it wont mention on your degree certificate that you did a Foundation year initially.

(The only issue with Foundation degrees generally is that often they can tie you in to only doing the rest of that degree at that (and only that) Uni. A year at a 'lower' Uni therefore may mean you can only do your degree there because no 'higher' Uni will accept that Foundation degree. In that situation, its better to retake A levels.)

I'd argue that paying £19,250 plus UK living costs for one year at Durham is not worth it for someone who could resit their A levels at home for a much lower cost. Unless the university has a specific policy/disadvantages resit A level applicants then resitting A levels will always be a more economical choice

I'm sorry, but having read through this thread there's so much acrimony against universities that are not "highly rated". OK Cambridge and Oxford yes I agree, but do you actually know how the statistics are referenced. It's a piece of paper (questionnaire) every university gives out to their students some universities even hold lectures so that each student fills it in others just don't do this. Please individual classism is not very attractive and it's not very kind on the students and lecturers that work at these universities. It's entirely up to the individual about which university they choose.

I’ve never known an employer to consider a degree with foundation year as superior just because it’s an extra year. Employers aren’t interested in how long you attend university.

I don't know why you have quoted me. I am stating that almost all foundation years are not in a student's best interest - I haven't said anything about "highly rated" universities (and generally when posters on TSR talk about "highly rated" they're talking about reputation/prestige and not National Student Survey results).