An Explanation of UK Foundation Courses

In most parts of the UK* children start school at 5 years old and finish senior high school at 18 years old. Therefore they have completed 13 years of education before entering university. University degrees are only 3 years to graduate at bachelors level making a total of 16 years formal education to graduation. In Taiwan students have only finished 12 years of formal education by the time they finish high school and then take a four-year degree to make the 16 years of formal education to graduation.

To make up for this discrepancy Taiwan high school graduates have to take a one-year preparation course before they start at university in the UK. This course is called a foundation course.

UK Foundation Courses have three main functions: -

• To help the students improve their English to a level high enough to cope with academic study in a British university. A high proportion of the course is dedicated to English language study.
• To prepare students for study at a British university. The British education system is designed so the emphasis is on teaching students to think independently. This means that rather than the students listening to every word the teacher says and repeating it, the teacher is there as a resource and should be challenged and questioned. One of the aims of the foundation course is to allow students to become accustomed to this type of teaching, which will be new to many of them. They teach the study skills needed to be able to perform well at undergraduate level.
• To prepare the students academically for the type of course they will study at university. So, for example a student aiming to study a business course would study business related academic classes during the foundation course. Whereas, a student hoping to study on an engineering course would study engineering classes.

Students should be careful when choosing a foundation course as some foundation courses only allow access to certain institutions.