Supporting Wide Participation Students: A Foundation Year Study

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BUSINESS STUDY SKILLS FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Identify the importance of the foundation year for students from wide participation backgrounds
and explain why it is important.......................................................................................................4
Discuss how study skills in higher education can help foundation year students overcome some
of these challenges...........................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

Introduction
The United Kingdom still follow two basic types of education system. Traditional education
system is one kind and the other is the conservative system. From a very early age, the students
in the UK are trained to sort out their problems that they face due to the gap in their studies
(Avci, 2015). This kind of mandatory study is having a negative impact on the students. This
further is frustrating and depressing the students. Every student lacks in certain departments and
has specific problems. So, it is must that the problems of the students are not pointed out but
subjected in a manner that would help them overcome those problems and allow them develop
towards a successful career and have access to large number of opportunities. Now, the
foundation year study helps a student in various ways. For example, a student wants to be
admitted in a certain university but does not fulfil the requirements of skill sets, and qualification
of the university. In this situation, the foundation year can effectively guide a student towards the
solution.
The foundation year is type of university that provides a one year of schooling that helps a
student to improve his or her academic knowledge and in addition, sets up a university
environment (Soria, 2014). This helps the student to face fewer challenges on his way to
achieving his or her goals. This initiative is highly practised in UK to bring all the students from
different parts of the world on a common ground.

Identify the importance of the foundation year for students from wide participation
backgrounds and explain why it is important
The foundation year is an approach to help the students who do not meet the eligibility criteria of
a certain university of their choice due to their personal lacking in degrees and skill sets. This
initiative helps a student by making him achieve an intermediary knowledge on professional and
technical skills. This study also benefits the students who initially did not decide to achieve a
university level educational status or were disconnected from studies for a long time due to
personal reasons. Therefore, foundation year is kind of approach that would educate a student by
providing them higher education, so that they can get admission in their desired universities for
higher qualification (Westbrook, 2014). This technique helps a student to get motivated and
achieve their educational goals. The foundation year not only helps a student on the academic
grounds but also gives them time to get adjusted with the university environment. The students
are coached for almost a year, which allows them to achieve greater knowledge about the
academics and provides them an idea on how the different functions in the university work.
Enhances the thinking process
Foundation year approach also improves the innovation process of a student. It strengthens the
thinking ability of the students and helps them to take decisions about their goals in their own
lives. It enhances the innovation skills and let the student steer better ideas (Malan, 2014). For
example, one student who primarily wanted to study engineering but while his involvement in
the foundation year, he may discover that he wants to study about a different subject. The
foundation year thus help a student to identify their goals and their passions.
Develops educational skills for university degrees
In an education system that follows the traditional methodology, the students are only taught the
concepts. However, the applications related to those concepts, which are most important part, are
ignored. On the other hand, the university exams are application based. This creates a serious
problem for the students. A void is created between the student’s concept and his applications.
This void is minimized by the foundation year. The techniques of the foundation year help the
students to know the academic requirements of the university by allowing them access to the

universities’ database and providing important information about the function of the university.
Therefore, the foundation years help the students to have advantage over the students who are
being admitted directly.
Prepares the students to do better in the chosen field
Foundation years provide an environment to students on the fields in which he or she wants to
pursue education on. Special early classes are allotted for the students who have no experience
on the studies he or she want to peruse higher education on. In addition to this, classes for the
ones who already poses the experience but want some rehearsing before their final exams are
assigned.
Motivation of the students for hard work
Many students could not get direct access to their desired universities because of their incapacity
or lacking in their educational skills. The foundation year serves as a second chance to those
students. This helps them by educating and supplying those skills that are beneficial to them.
This enhances motivation in all the students, which leads to their betterment. An extra year of
studying helps them to stay motivated and improve their educational skills.

Figure 1: Various features and working principles of the Foundation Year
(Source: Created by the learner)
Provides an Educational Environment
After a long detachment, when a student starts to study again, he or she may face lot of
difficulties. Foundation year can be very helpful to these students as they provide an educational
environment and help them to focus on their studies (Vinichenko, 2016).
Provide an opportunity to outshine in career

A student might get less mark in the final years of his or her educational career due to health
problems or unavoidable situations. The foundation year provides the students with a second
chance to achieve their dreams. Marks criteria is less in this case and not as high as the actual
academic requirements in this courses (Gifford, 2014). The foundations have introduced a new
way to provide degrees by getting access in the original universities. The students get a second
opportunity to achieve their dreams.
Helps for the communication of the International students
The United Kingdom is one of the major leading countries in the world. Many students from all
over the world target to achieve their higher study degrees from different universities in this
country. However, communication will be the major problems for the students from the other
countries (Hoaglund, 2014). The foundation year might be influential to these students to
minimize this communication gap and they will be get an opportunity to improve their skills in
English language.
Explain the key challenges faced by the foundation year students.
A regular student might face many challenges and problems. The foundation year allows the
student have a clear mind about his or her goals. Thus, the student stays motivated throughout
the course and can excel on the academic grounds.
The fees structure of the foundation year courses
The payment of the foundation year is separate from the actual payment of the main university.
The money thus paid for the foundation is for an extra year. The main problem arises when the
fees structure of this foundations are high. It is not affordable for maximum number if students to
achieve an extra one-year course. Therefore, the students generally decide to avoid studying in
these foundations and do not risk a year. This is leading to closure and downfall of these
organisations.
Foundation Year’s low reputation among students and teachers
General people tend not to know about the structure and working principles of the foundation
years. People think that these foundations are for the students who are not academically sound

and do not have knowledge about the subjects. Students and teachers often tend to have this
impression and they do not treat the students from all these foundations in a regular manner.
They tend to disrespect them and make way to impartial treatment. This has created fear or
insecurity in the various students who thought about taking admissions in the foundations. Often,
they are de-motivated and lose all hope of further educations.
Students not seriously taking part in the foundation year
The education that is provided in the foundation year is an extra year of study. Due to this, many
students tend not to take this course seriously. This leads to their failure in achieving 75% marks
in the university exams, which is the pass criteria. Students should be serious about their courses
if they want to succeed in achieving their goals. The lack-lustre behaviour may lead to several
problems and the student might not be able to face them.
Lack of knowledge about foundation year courses
The major problem faced by the foundation courses is that people and actual universities have
less or no knowledge about them. Moreover, many universities do not have the insights of the
foundations. Many students are unable to get access in these foundations, as they do not know
about them even if they want to go through them.

Figure 1: Challenges faced by Foundation year students
(Source: Created by the learner)
Discuss how study skills in higher education can help foundation year students overcome
some of these challenges.
The foundation years provide several key benefits to the students. Students may get admitted in
this foundations due to many reasons. While some of the students target educational
advancement, the others target at being habituated with the university environment, so that they
can gather important skills for their future quests. This is generally applicable for the students
that want to test themselves before going for the main exam.
Application-based studies in the school level
The major problem that the students at the school level face is their absence in knowledge of the
applications. The school organisations often follow concept-based teaching procedures, without
educating the students with the application’s implementations (McLaren, 2015). Now, for an
individual to crack the university’s entrance exam one must have proper application based
knowledge. If the school level organisation focus more on the applications then the students will
be more confident and sure about their skills and future decisions.

Developing knowledge about foundation year course from school level
The most important work that is to be done by the foundation years is to educate everyone
including students and teachers about their basics, working principles, goals, and targets. Many
students lack knowledge about these foundation years and they do not know how a foundation
year can be influential to their own achievements and betterments. People with traditional mind-
set tend to avoid these types of studying because they think these foundations to be of inferior
level. In addition, some people are concerned about the money required for studying in these
foundations. Therefore, a proper knowledge about these foundations should be delivered to the
general people so that they can understand about the advantages and targets of this one year extra
courses. More students will decide to take up this course once they come to know about the skill
sets and academic knowledge they will acquire after their completion from these courses.
Conclusion
From this specific study, the foundation years can be influential to the students who have failed
to get direct access to the universities through the exams. In addition, the students who want to
practice and test their skills before their final university exams can also be admitted to this
foundations and brighten their skills and knowledge. This can also be beneficial to the students
who left studies for a certain period because of various problems and now want to pursue their
courses again. The foundation delivers a proper environment to those students, which enable
them to study and have growth in their skills. Majority of the students come form aboard to
pursue higher education in UK, the foundation helps them to overcome the communication gap
that they face. A student may face many challenges on his way to achieve his or her dreams. To
tackle these challenges, the foundation plays significant roles in helping the student in increasing
their knowledge before they get into the college.

References
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Gifford, S., 2014. A good foundation for number learning for five-year-olds? An evaluation of
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Education, 16(3), pp.219-233.
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foundation for collaboration skills in pre-service teachers. Education, 134(4), pp.521-528.
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Malan, S.B. and Ndlovu, M., 2014. Introducing problem-based learning (PBL) into a foundation
programme to develop self-directed learning skills. South African Journal of Education, 34(1).
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Midgley, S. 2002 ‘Why a Degree? Reaching those parts’,The Guardian, 8 October 2002, p. 7
Simm, D., Marvell, A., Winlow, H. and Schaaf, R., 2011. Student experiences of foundation
degrees in further and higher education. Planet, 24(1), pp.2-9.
Soria, K.M. and Stubblefield, R., 2014. First-year college students' strengths awareness: Building
a foundation for student engagement and academic excellence. Journal of The First-Year
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Vinichenko, M.V., Frolova, E.V., Maloletko, A.N., Bondaletov, V.V. and Rogach, O.V., 2016.
Main directions of creating a favorable learning environment and labor protection in the interest