Engineering and Technology Foundation Year Portsmouth

I appreciate the detailed reply, thank you. Maths should be fine for me since im doing the a level aswell. On the other hand do you have an idea on the pricing of apartments?

Portsmouth IMO is a fairly cheap place to live. When I lived there I lived in Bateson as they were the cheapest halls at around £83 per week (shared toilet). Prices are around £120-130 for somewhere with an ensuite. And I believe private accommodation is extremely good pricing (i've seen rooms go for £60-£70 a week). I'd suggest sticking to the Southsea area if/when you go into private accommodation as thats where the majority of students are based.

Do you know how many hours a week you are timetabled for. If you get any days off during the week?

Would anyone who has studied this give some insight on this course?

Whats the level of maths that will be thought?

How are the facilities?

What is the passing grade to be able to move to an engineering course such as mechanical?

Can i transfer to another university with this foundation year?

Hey, I did this course in 2014/15 (and also had the option to transfer uni's after it, but declined my offer as i chose to take a year out, earn some money, and return to Portsmouth this september).

Maths start at the very basics, and if the lecturer is still the same guy, he is absolutely lovely, honestly the best lecturer you could possibly ask for (his name's Richard Treloar if you wanna search for him).
I came in with a BTEC and could literally remember no maths from school and I coped fine (mostly thanks to the support from richard).
I think it starts with basics GCSE stuff and ends with about A2 Level maths.
Make sure you complete every worksheet he gives you cos they help so much.
And not to keep going on about it, but honestly Richard is fantastic, he really tries his best with each student, I can't praise him enough.

Facilities are good, most buildings are fairly modern on the inside, the library has loads of computers and plenty of space (except for around exam time, but that's the same at every uni I suppose).
Most of your lectures will most likely be in the Portland lecture theatre as there are so many students on the course (around 200). However your maths will most likely be in Anglesea or Buckingham buildings since you're split in group A and group B (however you can go to both maths lectures/tutorials. I did this which most likely helped me understand the maths as I was getting twice the amount of contact with Richard haha)
Even though it's a city campus, everything is extremely close and you don't even realise it's a city as there's so many students everywhere!

Passing grades are about 50% for most BEng courses and I think 65/70% for MEng courses.
Most people I know managed to get onto the MEng as long as they put the time in (I quite easily managed to get 98% in the electrical module, 94% in maths, 81% in thermofluids and dynamics [the in-class computer test brought my grade down as it was hit and miss for each student], and 80% for materials [once again, the grade was brought down by the design aspect of this module as most people only got 50-70% for their designs]). Just make sure you go to every lecture as missing 1 or 2 in a week can easily put you behind everyone else.

I can personally vouch for this course and I highly recommend you do it as I honestly had the best time at Portsmouth and can't wait to return in September!
As long as you put at least a bit of effort in, you'll be fine. I still managed to go out drinking 1-2 times a week even around exam time!

If you feel you're struggling with any part of the course, the lecturers reply extremely fast by email and have a fairly open door policy.
Also there's plenty of maths / physics support through the maths cafe and physics support tutors.

Finally, I knew of many people transferring uni's after the foundation year (I knew of someone managing to get offers from Newcastle and Surrey). However, if you plan on doing this, make sure you apply before the 15 January deadline.
Also, Portsmouth may seem like a fairly mid-ranked uni, but the quality of teaching and support is top-notch, which is the reason why I've decided to return in September (plus, you'll be doing an engineering degree so your gonna get a job wherever you go! :P)
What I realised when I left for the year was that it's not about how high-ranked your uni is, it's about where you enjoy being and I personally loved every part of Portsmouth; everything's compact, it takes 5 mins to get to the beach, the lecturers will help you with any question no matter how silly, and watching people get blown across the street because of the strong winds will never get old :L.

Good luck!

Im likely to be starting this course in September and your detailed reply made me a lot more confident on going into this as I did not do maths or physics at A level and remember hardly any of it from GCSE lol. I have done Product Design at A level which should help me in the design aspects and materials etc!

Hey, I did this course in 2014/15 (and also had the option to transfer uni's after it, but declined my offer as i chose to take a year out, earn some money, and return to Portsmouth this september).

Maths start at the very basics, and if the lecturer is still the same guy, he is absolutely lovely, honestly the best lecturer you could possibly ask for (his name's Richard Treloar if you wanna search for him).
I came in with a BTEC and could literally remember no maths from school and I coped fine (mostly thanks to the support from richard).
I think it starts with basics GCSE stuff and ends with about A2 Level maths.
Make sure you complete every worksheet he gives you cos they help so much.
And not to keep going on about it, but honestly Richard is fantastic, he really tries his best with each student, I can't praise him enough.

Facilities are good, most buildings are fairly modern on the inside, the library has loads of computers and plenty of space (except for around exam time, but that's the same at every uni I suppose).
Most of your lectures will most likely be in the Portland lecture theatre as there are so many students on the course (around 200). However your maths will most likely be in Anglesea or Buckingham buildings since you're split in group A and group B (however you can go to both maths lectures/tutorials. I did this which most likely helped me understand the maths as I was getting twice the amount of contact with Richard haha)
Even though it's a city campus, everything is extremely close and you don't even realise it's a city as there's so many students everywhere!

Passing grades are about 50% for most BEng courses and I think 65/70% for MEng courses.
Most people I know managed to get onto the MEng as long as they put the time in (I quite easily managed to get 98% in the electrical module, 94% in maths, 81% in thermofluids and dynamics [the in-class computer test brought my grade down as it was hit and miss for each student], and 80% for materials [once again, the grade was brought down by the design aspect of this module as most people only got 50-70% for their designs]). Just make sure you go to every lecture as missing 1 or 2 in a week can easily put you behind everyone else.

I can personally vouch for this course and I highly recommend you do it as I honestly had the best time at Portsmouth and can't wait to return in September!
As long as you put at least a bit of effort in, you'll be fine. I still managed to go out drinking 1-2 times a week even around exam time!

If you feel you're struggling with any part of the course, the lecturers reply extremely fast by email and have a fairly open door policy.
Also there's plenty of maths / physics support through the maths cafe and physics support tutors.

Finally, I knew of many people transferring uni's after the foundation year (I knew of someone managing to get offers from Newcastle and Surrey). However, if you plan on doing this, make sure you apply before the 15 January deadline.
Also, Portsmouth may seem like a fairly mid-ranked uni, but the quality of teaching and support is top-notch, which is the reason why I've decided to return in September (plus, you'll be doing an engineering degree so your gonna get a job wherever you go! :P)
What I realised when I left for the year was that it's not about how high-ranked your uni is, it's about where you enjoy being and I personally loved every part of Portsmouth; everything's compact, it takes 5 mins to get to the beach, the lecturers will help you with any question no matter how silly, and watching people get blown across the street because of the strong winds will never get old :L.

Good luck!

Hi, I just finished this course this year and found it very useful for future engineering degrees. Course design is great plus the teaching environment is awesome as they support you a lot during the course as well as exams.

Hey, I did this course in 2014/15 (and also had the option to transfer uni's after it, but declined my offer as i chose to take a year out, earn some money, and return to Portsmouth this september).

Maths start at the very basics, and if the lecturer is still the same guy, he is absolutely lovely, honestly the best lecturer you could possibly ask for (his name's Richard Treloar if you wanna search for him).
I came in with a BTEC and could literally remember no maths from school and I coped fine (mostly thanks to the support from richard).
I think it starts with basics GCSE stuff and ends with about A2 Level maths.
Make sure you complete every worksheet he gives you cos they help so much.
And not to keep going on about it, but honestly Richard is fantastic, he really tries his best with each student, I can't praise him enough.

Facilities are good, most buildings are fairly modern on the inside, the library has loads of computers and plenty of space (except for around exam time, but that's the same at every uni I suppose).
Most of your lectures will most likely be in the Portland lecture theatre as there are so many students on the course (around 200). However your maths will most likely be in Anglesea or Buckingham buildings since you're split in group A and group B (however you can go to both maths lectures/tutorials. I did this which most likely helped me understand the maths as I was getting twice the amount of contact with Richard haha)
Even though it's a city campus, everything is extremely close and you don't even realise it's a city as there's so many students everywhere!

Passing grades are about 50% for most BEng courses and I think 65/70% for MEng courses.
Most people I know managed to get onto the MEng as long as they put the time in (I quite easily managed to get 98% in the electrical module, 94% in maths, 81% in thermofluids and dynamics [the in-class computer test brought my grade down as it was hit and miss for each student], and 80% for materials [once again, the grade was brought down by the design aspect of this module as most people only got 50-70% for their designs]). Just make sure you go to every lecture as missing 1 or 2 in a week can easily put you behind everyone else.

I can personally vouch for this course and I highly recommend you do it as I honestly had the best time at Portsmouth and can't wait to return in September!
As long as you put at least a bit of effort in, you'll be fine. I still managed to go out drinking 1-2 times a week even around exam time!

If you feel you're struggling with any part of the course, the lecturers reply extremely fast by email and have a fairly open door policy.
Also there's plenty of maths / physics support through the maths cafe and physics support tutors.

Finally, I knew of many people transferring uni's after the foundation year (I knew of someone managing to get offers from Newcastle and Surrey). However, if you plan on doing this, make sure you apply before the 15 January deadline.
Also, Portsmouth may seem like a fairly mid-ranked uni, but the quality of teaching and support is top-notch, which is the reason why I've decided to return in September (plus, you'll be doing an engineering degree so your gonna get a job wherever you go! :P)
What I realised when I left for the year was that it's not about how high-ranked your uni is, it's about where you enjoy being and I personally loved every part of Portsmouth; everything's compact, it takes 5 mins to get to the beach, the lecturers will help you with any question no matter how silly, and watching people get blown across the street because of the strong winds will never get old :L.

Good luck!

Hey mate, i'll be going to my third year now and aiming to do a masters in robotics at bristol. The foundation year assumes you know very little, but it builds you up fast. You should be fine, just make sure you keep up with the content.

First of all apologies for reviving a old post....
I am interested in studying this foundation course either September 2020 or 2021.

However I have been out of education for well over 6 years, also my A Levels were non-STEM related. Do you think it would be suitable for me, or would you study an Access to HE / self-taught A-Levels first?


Thanks

Hey, no apology needed. I have graduated now and can't believe it has been four years since i posted this! Time sure flies. This course assumes you know very little but the foundation year is very fast paced. If you do your work week by week and keep up with the tutorials you should have no problem in dealing with this course. If you want to get a head start then look at C1/C2 books for the maths A-level. You will find plenty of help using the Exam Solutions youtube channel.