Foundation Year: Challenges and Study Skills in UK Higher Education

This report, Project 2, focuses on the significance of the foundation year in UK higher education, particularly for students from diverse backgrounds. It highlights the role of the foundation year in preparing students for university-level study, improving academic skills, and providing financial and scholarship support. The report identifies key challenges faced by foundation year students, including time management, communication problems, work-life balance issues, homesickness, and financial inadequacy. It then explores how study skills, such as organized study methods, effective writing styles, effective reading, and note-taking, can help students overcome these challenges and succeed. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of the foundation year in fostering student knowledge, learning, and the development of critical academic skills. The report is a valuable resource for students seeking to understand and navigate the challenges of higher education in the UK.

Study Skills for Higher Education
(PROJECT 2)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PROJECT – 2...................................................................................................................................1
a) The Significance of the foundation year for students from wide participation backgrounds..1
b) The Key challenges faced by Foundation year students .........................................................3
c) Study skills in higher education helps foundation year students to overcome the above
stated challenges..........................................................................................................................4
d) Conclusion...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Higher Education in UK is recognized at global level. They have extreme reputation for
first-class research. The students are granted with the opportunity to develop their skills in
addition to the knowledge and learning. Foundation year is perceived by the students to meet the
entry requirements of the universities. They are supported by the scholarships and financial
assistance.
The Report will cover Project-2 in which it will outline the importance of Foundation
year in Higher Education of UK. It will identify its significance from wide participation
backgrounds. Furthermore, it will explicate the key challenges faced by the foundation year
students. Assignment will determine how study skills helps the students to overcome the above
declared challenges. Lastly, it will provide conclusion.
PROJECT – 2
a) The Significance of the foundation year for students from wide participation backgrounds
Foundation year has signifiant importance as this provides eligibility to students from
wide participation for entering into the universities courses. The aim behind this course is to
make students capable to meet the requirements of the higher education universities of the UK.
This is helpful in improving the academic skills of the students from wider participation (Assiter,
2017). As students comes from various culture backgrounds and different locations from all over
the globe in order to pursue further learning. Thus, the student becomes eligible to take the
education of their prior interest through studying foundation year courses.
The students from wide engagement backgrounds also get scholarship as they outperform
in the foundation year for further studying in the universities of the UK. They get to adopt
critical learning styles, academic writing, paraphrasing and note taking in foundation year. They
get better education facilities in this UK universities such as expert teachers and tutors. The
students also benefited with the digital libraries where they can easily acquire more knowledge in
the particular field in which they have interest (Van Hees, Moyson and Roeyers, 2015). They are
affiliated with the guaranteed progression during studying in foundation year. Fundamental
understanding of students from widening participation is being developed during this course. The
students get to experience more in terms of a culture and get a chance to enhance their
knowledge by studying with the students who come from various cultural backgrounds.
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The Students are entitled with improved language proficiency in foundation year degree.
This is also useful from their career perceptive as various skills are developed during these
courses. Students get better job as this foundation year moreover focuses on particular profession
of their interest. They can easily take admission in various universities for their higher education
as the foundation year is acceptable at global level and also have significant importance in terms
of acquiring knowledge, learning and improvised skills. Various online foundation year courses
are also available for the students. They can easily grasp the library information from these
platforms. In comparison to other courses the foundation year is considerably of lower cost. This
provides another chance to students who are not able to perform well in their first round. This is
specially designed for those students who have the ability but cannot go directly to take higher
education in the universities (Hryciw, Tangalakis and Best, 2017). The students get direct
admission in these universities without having to persist there A- levels. This helpful in
preparing the mind set of the students. Thus, they can easily choose the stream that best suited
them. Personal tutors are also available in these fundamental year courses that helps in students
progress. The basic knowledge is gained in the foundation courses of the stream in which they
want to make career in the future.
Students from widening participation get a chance to improved their ability to
communicate and analytical thinking is being developed during foundation year course. They
enhance their knowledge of interpersonal skills and management experience during study. The
students become specialize in particular field of their interest through studying in foundation
year. As there is huge competitiveness among the students. Thus, they need to choose a
particular stream wisely. Therefore, foundation year helps the students to built their ability to
take subjects wisely. They get clear cut idea about the field in which they want to make career
further. The students can easily be prepared for the entrance exam of the universities degree
(Pathway to university: why you shouldn’t feel bad about doing a foundation year, 2018). The
course is helpful in filing the gap of entrance exam pattern and academic pattern. Students are
able to avail the credit as well for studying the higher education. Foundation year provide
students a chance to spend some time on themselves for improving their skills in order to take
higher degree in the universities. The students get better placements and a pathway option for
their career growth. Thus, the Foundation year courses provide progressive learning to help the
students from wide participation.
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b) The Key challenges faced by Foundation year students
The challenges which are faced by the Foundation year students are as follows -
 Time Management – The students are new in foundation year they are not aware how to
manage their time efficiently. As they have lots of books to study or read and also have
to make assignments and projects. Thus, they fail in doing time management. They did
not know how to manage their time for studying and doing other curriculum activities.
As in foundation year they also need to focused on improving their academic skills.
Therefore, they are inefficient in devoting the time equally for all the activities. Being a
school pass out they did not know how many hours they need to study (Gokhale and
Machina, 2018). They did not know how to distribute their time tactfully for doing all
the activities and work. The assignment's submission is sometimes done after the allotted
deadline. They end up with the procrastination. While giving presentation in the class
they are lacking up with the time management.
 Communication Problem – This is one of the major problem of the Foundation year
students. As the students came from various culture background to study in the
foundation year so there is language barrier. The students are not able to understand the
language of the other partners while making group presentation and assignments. The
view point and perception of students differs as they belong to various cultural
background. Hence, they end up with the poor performance (Kingand Boyatt, 2015).
Accepting culture diversities sometimes required time as every students things they are
superior to others. Some students are introvert, and they have inability to make new
friends. Thus, they are tended to feel lonely and sometimes even in depressed situations.
The students who are staying in hostels have to deal with bullying and harsh seniors.
They feel difficulty to communicate with their classmates. Student who are coming from
overseas to study in UK doesn't have fluency in English language.
 Work-life Balance – The Students who came to study foundation degree in the
universities of the UK has facing the problem of Work life balance. As students comes
from different countries to study foundation course. They are far away from their homes,
and they stay in hostels. Thus, the personal and routine work is also done by their own
along with their studies (Lim, 2018). The students fail to do flexible work arrangements.
Some students also doing part-time jobs along with their studies. They are tended to
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become financial independent to study higher education in universities. They have to
work for long hours in the office and also have to manage time for their studies along
with the additional assignments and projects. Therefore, they started experiencing high
stress level due to over work load. Thus, it is harder for them to maintain the work life
balance.
 Homesickness – The students started feeling lonely as they are coming from overseas to
take foundation year course in the universities. They are far away from their homes.
Thus, they started missing their old friends and families. As some students are introvert,
and they can't open up with the others easily. They miss their country's cuisine as they
belong to various cultural background. In Hostels, they are not facilitates with the
conducive work environment. Sometimes they are also facing the health issues due to
migration (Schneider and Preckel, 2017). The students are moreover facing adjustments
problems with the other classmates due to homesickness problem. This also affects
adversely at the time of giving presentation in the class. They also lose their morale. For
preparing the assignments of the class they need to collaborate with their team members
but due to introvert nature they are unable to mixed up with the others.
 Financial inadequacy – The students also faced financial problems. As they are
occurring high costs because they came from different countries to study foundation year
course in the UK. Thus, it is way more expensive than to study in home country. The
accommodation cost is high (Foster, 2017). The students are not able to afford the
expensive study of these universities. For purchasing additional books of the particular
stream also results in high costs. Thus, the financial stress affects their academic
performance.
c) Study skills in higher education helps foundation year students to overcome the above stated
challenges
The study skills in higher education helps the foundation year students to overcome from
these challenges. Various skills are discussed as follows -
 Building organized way to study – The students started working in organized way, and
they learn how to manage their time efficiently. They prioritize their work according to
its significance. They complete those assignments of the tutor first whose deadline is of
shorter duration. The students did proper scheduling of their work in which they make
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lists of the tasks to be covered in whole day along with the timetable. They started
devoting equal time to all activities. Through this their time for study, assignments and
projects has been managed in foundation year.
 Styles of Writing – The Students in higher education get to learn various styles of
writing such as journalism and academic which further help in their exam time during
studying in foundation year (Ryan and Zuber-Skerritt, 2017). They also learn to
paraphrase in higher education which further helps them to avoid plagiarism in their
foundation year. Thus, this is helpful for the students in their career growth.
 Effective Reading – Through reading books and journals in libraries at the time of
perusing the higher education will improve their communication skills. By reading novels
and various academic books will help the students to boost their knowledge as well as
improve their language fluency. As they develop skills of researching the topics in
detailed through reading various articles and books of libraries in higher education. This
will help them in their foundation year for grasping knowledge of the particular topic in
depth.
 Note taking – These habits of the students helps them in their study time during exams.
Short notes helps to cover the important questions of the chapters and also provide quick
revision through covering all the important topics in the shorter span (Budsankom,
Sawangboon and Chuensirimongkol, 2015). Through taking notes from the tutor will
help the students to perform better in their exams. The students improved their
knowledge and started gathering various sources of information for studying the
particular subject in detail. Thus, they become able to do research in Foundation year.
d) Conclusion
It has been concluded that through studying in the foundation year the students are
acknowledged with the chance to develop their knowledge and learning with focusing on various
academic skills. It has been summarized that foundation year students are facing various
challenges such as time management, communication problem, homesickness, financial
inadequacy and work-life balance. From the above study it has been determined that in higher
education the students get to learn various writings styles which further helps them in their
foundation year.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Assiter, A., 2017. Transferable skills in higher education. Routledge.
Van Hees, V., Moyson, T. and Roeyers, H., 2015. Higher education experiences of students with
autism spectrum disorder: Challenges, benefits and support needs. Journal of autism
and developmental disorders.45(6).pp.1673-1688.
Hryciw, D.H., Tangalakis, K. and Best, G., 2017, August. Development of transferable skills in a
low-SES population through peer assisted study sessions. In Proceedings of The
Australian Conference on Science and Mathematics Education (formerly UniServe
Science Conference).(p. 69).
Gokhale, A. and Machina, K., 2018. Guided Online Group Discussion Enhances Student Critical
Thinking Skills.International Journal on E-Learning.17(2).pp.157-173.
Schneider, M. and Preckel, F., 2017. Variables associated with achievement in higher education:
A systematic review of meta-analyses. Psychological bulletin.143(6).p.565.
Ryan, Y. and Zuber-Skerritt, O., 2017. Quality in postgraduate education. Routledge.
Budsankom, P., Sawangboon, T. and Chuensirimongkol, J., 2015. Factors Affecting Higher
Order Thinking Skills of Students: A Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling
Study. Educational Research and Reviews.10(19).pp.2639-2652.
Foster, D., 2017. Writing and learning in cross-national perspective: Transitions from secondary
to higher education. Routledge.
Lim, D., 2018. Quality assurance in higher education: A study of developing countries: A study
of developing countries. Routledge.
King, E. and Boyatt, R., 2015. Exploring factors that influence adoption of e‐learning within
higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology.46(6).pp.1272-1280.
Online
Pathway to university: why you shouldn’t feel bad about doing a foundation year. 2018.
[Online]. Available through :
<https://www.timeshighereducation.com/student/blogs/pathway-university-why-you-
shouldnt-feel-bad-about-doing-foundation-year#survey-answer>.
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