Business, Humanities, Social Sciences & Law International Foundation Year

Academic English Skills aims to provide thorough training in the language and related academic skills which will enable international students to best achieve their academic potential at university. Our Academic English programme is validated by UK ENIC, the UK government agency responsible for providing information and expert opinion on qualifications and skills worldwide.

You will develop awareness and competency in a range of language-related academic skills, including the processes of academic writing, effective and extensive reading strategies, effective participation in seminars and delivery of presentations, and listening to and recording information effectively from lectures. You will also develop the accuracy and range of written and spoken language required to use language effectively and appropriately, with clarity and confidence in an academic context.

Alongside your classes, your studies will be supported by an online learning platform, providing you with a range of tasks and activities specifically designed to develop and extend your language and academic skills outside the classroom and to give you more control over your own learning.

Students will begin their academic study in this area by considering how business works. How is management and leadership important, how are organisations structured, what types of business are there, and what principles are important to success?

Areas of mathematics covered include: pricing; evaluating the acquisition of assets and investing in business opportunities and maintaining quality. This module will provide essential tools and theories in mathematics as a foundation for later modules, such as Introduction to Finance and Accounting. The mathematics content will provide business students with a base for them to evaluate the potential benefits to a range of business opportunities and the process of evaluating the most beneficial.

Report writing and handling academic conventions is a critical skill to study in these areas. In the UK there are very specific expectations, in terms of academic integrity, citations and referencing – the fundamental principles of this module.

This module will introduce important concepts in both micro and macroeconomics – both the economics of business and society, and of global trade. Understanding the working of supply and demand are critical to further study in business.

This is an introductory module intended to provide students with a basic knowledge of accounting and finance, and to prepare them for further study at undergraduate level in business/finance related degrees. Students will explore how firms record and use financial data, how they manage their financial operations – looking at issues such as decisions on methods of obtaining capital, evaluating the acquisition of assets and investing in business opportunities.

What is an entrepreneur? This module will introduce ideas around entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, encouraging students to think outside the norm. Students will work on a project that expands on the ideas they have encountered.

This module introduces basic sociological ideas – such as how society is formed and might be structured, and how we can use different theories to look at society itself. The understanding developed here forms a basis for further study in both humanities and social science.

This introductory module will help students to consider what psychology is. It will introduce four principal areas of psychology: cognitive, behavioural, developmental and animal psychology.

Essay and report writing and handling academic conventions is a critical skill to study in these areas. In the UK there are very specific expectations, in terms of academic integrity, citations and referencing – the fundamental principles of this module.

This module aims to introduce students to law and the English legal system including its underlying principles, the law making process, the structure of courts and administration of the justice systems. It will also look to introduce students to the core aspects of private law, contract law, and property law.

How do nations think of themselves and organise themselves, politically, socially and structurally, with their neighbours and nations geographically distant to themselves? This module helps students consider these questions around international political and social alliances and global structures.

Students will learn about the importance of qualitative research, including how to gather and evaluate qualitative research. They will then have the opportunity to put this into practice in a research project of their own design.