University Foundation Year: Challenges, Skills, and Importance

This report examines the significance of foundation years in higher education, focusing on the development of essential study skills. It identifies the importance of the foundation year for students, highlighting its role in improving academic skills, aiding in stream selection, and bridging the gap between school and university. The report then details key challenges faced by foundation year students, including recruitment and diversity issues, stress, financial burdens, and time management difficulties. It further explores how study skills, encompassing active listening, reading comprehension, and stress management, help students overcome these challenges. The report concludes by emphasizing the crucial role of study skills in ensuring academic success and fostering effective decision-making for future career paths, while also addressing the financial pressures and offering strategies such as scholarship applications and wise university choices to mitigate the financial burden. The report underscores the importance of continuous skill development and proper planning for students to navigate the complexities of higher education successfully.

Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Main body .......................................................................................................................................3
a) Figure out the importance of the foundation year for the student...........................................4
B) Describe the key challenges face by the foundation year students........................................5
c) Explain how study skills help the individual to overcome these challenges..........................6
d) Draw conclusion the key points..............................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Study skills are those skills which enable to study and learn efficiently and they are
useful for overall career development. These applied to learning as they are mainly use in the
school as it is used for learning throughout the life (Bonsaksen and et., al., 2019). This is
consider as array of skills which tackle the process of organising as well as taking in new
information for retaining and effectively completion of assessment. The present study is based
upon higher education and what challenges are faced by the foundation year student. Further this
report discuss about the skills which are required to gain higher education knowledge. At the
conclusion have to be developed so that there can effective decision should be taken into
account.
Main body
Study skills are known as the discrete techniques which are used to be learned in the short
time and applied to in all major field. There fore there are different strategies which are useful in
improving the study skills of the individual for the higher education. Foundation year offers
supportive environment where student can make there promising career in the well define
manner.

a) Figure out the importance of the foundation year for the student.
Going for a higher education is the big step and the development of the foundation year
has opened the door to many of the students weather for the personal and academic reason. For
example at the university of Bedfordshire the initial session focus on the career aspiration and
opportunities including a review of exiting and transferable skills. This is crucial for the student
to attain the correct level of qualifications and the skills to pursue the degree at the university.
Further this will help student to require additional language support (Cottrell, 2019). A
foundation year is usually presented in three term programmes which is made up of academic
modules as well as specific modules related to chosen subject.
Along with this it help in fulling the gap and also help in choosing the right qualifications
to get direct admission in a degree programmes. It also provide broad introduction to the subject
the student choice which help them have a master degree in coming years. Here some of the
importance of foundation year for the student.
Improve academic skills: Foundation course allow student to develop the skills which
are need to succeed in the tertiary education. This range from general study such as academic
writing, time management and independent research are related to the chosen field. If the
individual is lacking in the prerequisite or feel like they can get more knowledge from the
freshmen course as for selecting the suitable in order to carry forward for the higher education.
Along with this it help in improving the other skills such as maths and science which increase the
chance to get in university.
Help in choosing stream of interest: Foundation course in UK help in figure the best
stream to carry forward in the future. Many courses are created according the field to study and
allowing the student to get started on their studies in the area of interest. It can be any field in
which student is interested such as arts, education, engineering or psychology. Some of the
stream may cater the student who have never taken knowledge regarding the study with the
educational background. While there are some advance foundation course which help person to
improve there skills in a well define manner.
Bridge the gap between school and university: Educational system differ around the
world, from teaching to qualifications. Foundation course in UK help the student to fill the gap in
school to university. These are design in such a manner in which this help in choosing the right
option for the people. This include building knowledge on the subject which you want to study

through the subjective modules. While the core module help in understanding the wider context
of the focus area.
B) Describe the key challenges face by the foundation year students
The largest professional service provided by the UK education system will have to
confront to remain at the top in this industry(Cronin and et., al., 2019). There are mainly
different kinds of challenges experienced by the student in the foundation year which effect there
study and also hamper the future career. Here are some of the problems which are explained
down below in the detail manner.
Recruitment and diversity: This has been clear that there are substantial method which
varies from different programmes regarding choosing the student. This is difficult to identify the
to clear the recruiting strategies at the time to find out the student who can be beneficial from the
foundation year. The student can not decide which course is best suitable for them and what are
there future plans. In addition to this, some of the student may find course to fill the gap which
they have been recruited.
Stress and overburden: Stress is also called as anxiety and is a reaction to every
demand and the energy. There are different the student face the challenges during the foundation
year due to lots of assignment and work. The student suffer from different disease such as
increase in adrenaline, muscle tension, hyper stress. For this student must have physical and
mental energy and to make a healthy life person should do regular exercise which help them to
live ha prospers life (Rogaten and et., al., 2019). In order to avoid such kind of stress is to spend
more time with the people and also eat a balance diet which help in minimizing the negative
thoughts which effect the mood of the student.
Increase cost and shifting funding: This is major challenge which is faced by the
foundation student of UK. Recent change in the Universities funding strategies which means that
student now have to put more financial burden for embarking on their studies. Staff teaching and
student learning cost continue to rise rapidly which makes difficult for the student to avail the
higher education programmes. Which such intense pressure on teaching and more and more
challenges are arising increasingly to digitalised the society. Hence this become the more
difficult for the student to get admission for further education. Along with this institution needs
to invest in their equipment, staff and facilities if they uphold world class reputation.

Time management: Time management for the student are academically more
challenging and for the many students course are require more efforts which they were require
from the high school. So this is essential to maintain the time and also make sure that all the task
and assessment are done in time. Because these grades will help the student to get selected in the
higher education system. The individual should prepare a time table and make sure to follow
during the foundation year which will assist the student to be punctual and it will increase the
chance to get into better university.
c) Explain how study skills help the individual to overcome these challenges
Study skills include different elements which include active listening, reading
comprehension, note taking, stress management and test taking. These kind of skill help the
student to gain essential knowledge which set apart the student from the other group of people.
The study skills help in teaching how to manage the time effectively so that in the foundation
year student can effectively use the time to offer better purpose. For the career or to increase the
knowledge of the particular subject this is essential to have proper study skills. Along with this, it
is important to understand and review the study skills which aid in boosting the confidence and
provide proper guidance for successful growth. Furthermore this also enable to work more
effectively in the time available for the study (Duong and et., al., 2019).
Study skills help in overcoming the challenges of stress as well as overburden by
avoiding unnecessary work load present in the foundation year. Apart from this managing the
time and develop the learning strategies help in improving the self moral for achieving the aims
and objectives for the future aspect. Taking notes is important as this help in reduce the burden
during the exams. Student must discuss the study skills problems and the solution and practise
the new skills with the fellow participants.
To overcome the challenges of cost the student have suggested to choose the collage
wisely. While these estimates do not take financial aid into consideration and they do reflect the
disparity between different educational environment. Beside this student can consider low
interest federal loan as the government programmes aid student to get low interest loan.
Repayment of federal loan begins six months after the person gets graduated, leave collage or
drop below half time enrolment. The next method to overcome the challenges to apply for the
scholarship programmes as these money is provided by the state government and these are

mainly based upon the merit. For the vast amount of scholarship the student must choose the best
possible outcomes.
In order to overcome such challenges student must avoid the pitfall which is the feeling
for bad performance. So to avoid such kinds of issue this is essential for the student to attain
proper classes which aid to get good grades in the final years. This strategy will assist to get
university which have good ranking. Proper planning will provide clear goal as well as vision for
the student to overcome such kind of challenges.
d) Draw conclusion the key points
As per the above conclusion study skills are commonly describe as the approach of
studying the successful course particularly in university. These kind of skills are crucial for the
student to gain vast knowledge which include time management and team work. These are the
most important aspect for the student to be punctual as this help in having better life as well as
career in the future. The critical thinking reflect on what are the learning and help them to make
better decision for the life. Hence this is essential to do proper research and development
programmes which help in making better out comes for the betterment and growth. The skill
development is the new concept as this is increasingly important of the person to have indulge in
continues change of the organisation and also help in making quality decision for the career
growth. For the student focus and time management is crucial as this help in making quality
decision for the future aspect. This is also essential to define the main strategy which help in
meeting individual needs. As there has been the high rise in price for the higher education this is
essential for the student to take effective measure which help them to avoid the risk and
uncertainty of risk of loan after completion of collage.
CONCLUSION
From the above stated report this has been analysed that study skills are essential for the
student to have a promising career in the future. Beside this, student faces different challenges
while going for higher education such as stress. In order to manage the stress students must
indulge in the sessions and try to interact with more and more people which aid in reducing the
stress course workload. However there have been financial burden for the student after they
graduate from the collage so they must choose wisely the university as this help to minimizing
the loan. The federal and state government provide scholarship for those who cannot afford

tuition fee and they must choose the best possible educational loan for career growth and
expansion.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Students in a cross‐cultural occupational therapy undergraduate student
sample. Australian occupational therapy journal, 66(1), pp.33-43.
Cottrell, S., 2019. The study skills handbook. Macmillan International Higher Education.
Cronin and et., al., 2019. Development and initial validation of the life skills ability scale for
higher education students. Studies in Higher Education, pp.1-14.
Duong and et., al., 2019. Student inequalities in Vietnamese higher education? Exploring how
gender, socioeconomic status, and university experiences influence leadership
efficacy. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 56(1), pp.110-120.
Jones, A., 2019. The role of team leadership on critical thinking skills–a case study of business
major students using a role-play simulation at the American university in the emirates
(AUE). International Journal of Development Research, 9(07), pp.29097-29100.
Josefsson, P., Green, A. and Normark, M., 2019. Students' perception of feedback using peer
review as a pedagogical method to increase academic writing skills in higher education.
In INTED2019, the 13th International Technology, Education and Development
Conference, 11-13 March, 2019, Valencia, Spain. (pp. 513-519).
Rogaten and et., al., 2019. Reviewing affective, behavioural and cognitive learning gains in
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Rostaminezhad, M.A., Porshafei, H. and Ahamdi, A.A., 2019. Can effective study approaches
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Sin, C., Tavares, O. and Amaral, A., 2019. Accepting employability as a purpose of higher
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pp.920-931.