Foundation Year in UK Higher Education: Bridging the Knowledge Gap

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Study Skills for Higher Education
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The deficit based set of mind is affecting the system of education in the United Kingdom. The
students of the United Kingdom continues of have gaps within them regarding their knowledge.
The assignment will provide information regarding the importance of the foundation year for the
students. The assignment will also provide information regarding the key challenges that are
faced by the students in the foundation year. It will also provide clear information regarding how
study skills in higher education help the students of foundation year. This will help the students
to get prepared before entering the Universities to re-acquaint themselves with their skills.
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Main Body
a. Identify the importance of the foundation year for students from wide participation
backgrounds and explain why it is important.
Foundation course is generally a replacement course for an individual who have not completed
thirteen years of studies before entering for a degree in the University. The individuals need to
undergo a foundation course that enables them to get proper knowledge of the higher studies in
less time. These are vital for the individuals that want to take higher degrees in the future. The
importance of the foundation for the students will be elucidated below:
Feeling for the environment of tertiary education
The first importance of the foundation year for the student is to have a feeling of the tertiary
education environment. These are important for the students who do not have full thirteen years
of education so that they can develop themselves so that they do not get any kind of problems
during taking a degree at the University level (Simm et al., 2011). This environment is very
important as the individuals sometimes get out of studies to join jobs, which makes it difficult for
them to keep their minds in studies.
Providing professional and intermediate level skills
Another importance of the foundation year is to provide the professional and intermediate level
of skills to the students. This helps the students to get proper knowledge about the professional
skills; thereby, developing the knowledge that they posses that help them in the future during
taking a degree at the University level. Due to the foundation course the skills of the intermediate
levels are also developed within the individuals those are taking this course.
Contributing in widening the participation agenda
Another importance of the foundation year for the students is that these help the students in
contributing the agenda in the widening participation (Midgley, 2002). This ensures the students
to participate in the larger contest that enables them to be developed so that the students can get
prepared to join the Universities to get degree.
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Providing a route for progression to honours degrees
This is also important for the students as it ensures that the students get proper route for
progressing to the degree of honours. These are essential as the students get all the information
that guides the students to achieve the honours degree. It is beneficial for them to achieve the
desired goal that is to get a degree of the University.
Improving the academic skills
Another importance of the foundation year is that the knowledge that is provided to the
individuals is to improve the skills of the academics. These help the individuals to improve in the
areas where they have less or no knowledge about those areas of the academics. It is essential for
the individuals to get all the knowledge before entering the honours degree in the University.
Helps in guiding the stream to take in the University degree
Another significant importance of the foundation year for the students is that this study guides
the students to select a stream that they feel good for them in the University degree (Krutkowski,
2017). These are essential for the students as they get to know all the details about the different
types of streams that are present in the University degree.
Getting credits on further study
This importance of the foundation year is dedicated for the students who have not completed
thirteen years before taking an honours degree (HEFCE, 2000). The reason behind this is that
they get knowledge about how they will have to structure their study in the future.
The above provided points show that the foundation year are very much important for the
students who do not have full thirteen years of education before joining the University for a
honours degree. These are essential for the students, as they do not get proper knowledge about
different types of things that they will face in the honours degree.
b. Explain the key challenges facing foundation year students.
Students, who are pursuing foundation degree (FD) is affected from some deficits in their
educational career. It has been pointed out, that they have some gaps, which needs to be filled in
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education. These educational gaps are created in schools or any institute in which they studied
before. This is affecting their transition from a lower level to higher level of education, as they
have significant amount of lacking in knowledge. These students on regular basis are facing this
challenge and it can be very difficult for them to manage. Most students of foundation year
usually are first generations, who are considering going for higher education. They do not have
strong educational background like other students and this is the reason for them being unable to
connect with study subjects. They often fail to connect with teachers and other students, which
makes their university life more difficult. Students, who are pursuing FD believes that it is more
valuable than honours degree. There are many employment agenda, which are recruiting people
pursuing FD but some stigma remains. There are many students, who are having a doubt on FDs
credibility of these courses, as employers are hesitant in recruiting candidates (Krutkowski,
2017).
Identity crisis inside them is evident, as they seem to form small groups at these colleges due to
lack of confidence. These offsite students have often faced challenges, while explaining their
situation to peers and employers. Students often feel isolated and faces challenge while mixing
socially. They feel fear because they think that other students may ostracise them because they
are different and not part of regular university student groups. FD students often find it difficult
to understand study materials by using virtual learning environment. They feel being in direct
contact with tutors is more beneficial for them. They have faced some serious challenges while
using VLE and gaining higher education by this method is difficult for them. There are huge
numbers of dropouts at FD courses. Mature students tend to drop out of these courses more.
They face challenge in making transition to higher education because they lack schooling and
confidence to keep pursuing it. They feel that they do not have any depth and struggles in many
ways academically. This is a major challenge for mature FD students and causing them to ditch
these programs more often (Simm et al., 2011).
Many offsite students have complained that teachers and other staffs have mistreated them. This
grew more fear inside other students, who heard this news and read articles about it. Many
students were misguided before. They claimed that during joining a FD institution they were told
that it was part of university program. Later they found out that a FE college was actually hosting
it. This kind of dishonesty has stuck fear upon many students, as they have started to think that
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their courses may not have value of a university degree. They are losing trust in these courses
too. This is a major challenge faced by these foundation year students (Midgley, 2002).
c. Discuss how study skills in higher education can help foundation year students overcome
some of these challenges.
Study skills are basically the procedures or approaches that are applied in learning. Effective
selection and implementation of these study skills in daily learning curriculum of the students is
highly imperative, as it facilitates in ensuring further effectiveness in higher education. As
discussed above, the foundation students when planning to undergo higher studies experience a
number of issues, the key one being the knowledge gap during the transition gap from foundation
to higher education. In order to ensure effective learning of the students in context to higher
education and bridge the knowledge gap, it is necessary for the educational institutions to
identify and encourage certain necessary study skills. In the view of the fact that, the present
focus of the educational institutions in UK is to identify the process of teaching and learning
which is wrong, identify the factors that are missing in the studying opting for higher education
and overlooking the talents that the students already possess, it is necessary for the educational
institutions to improve their teaching process in the foundation year of the students.
As per the finding of Krutkowski (2017), study skills facilitate the students in the foundation
year to learn the different curriculums in a much better and effective manner. Some of the
general skills that must be encouraged in foundation year students are discovering their learning
style, improving upon their note keeping practice, efficient listening skills, proper time
management and so forth. Knowing their learning style will help the foundation year students in
grasping the modules being taught in a better manner; in that way, retaining information for a
longer period. Furthermore, practicing note keeping will facilitate in improving writing skills,
which is highly imperative when undergoing higher education. Additionally, when pursuing
higher education, the students need to carry out various assignments and projects, for which
efficient time management is necessary. Encouraging the students to develop proper time
management skills at the foundation level will facilitate in bridging then knowledge gap largely.
In order to ensure that the foundation level students can successfully adjust themselves with the
education process at higher level, it is necessary for the education institutions to encourage the
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students to enhance and buff up their test giving skills. This will help the students in undertaking
the tests and assignments in higher education level (Krutkowski, 2017). To facilitate this, some
of the study skills that can be pushed further are test taking strategies, practice of different types
of test such as, open book, oral, written and so on, and finally tips on test preparation. This will
further facilitate the students in being aware of the impediments that they might experience when
undergoing higher studies; in so doing, reducing the level of knowledge gap between foundation
and higher education.
d. Draw conclusions based on these key points.
There are various key challenges that are faced by the students of the foundation years and
according to a survey, it was found that there were gaps in the knowledge of the students. This is
the reason it is advised to the students to get foundation course before going for a degree from
the University. It is also seen that the students are affected in their system of education for the
gaps that are present. This is reduced by proper study in the foundation year. The foundation year
also guides the students in taking a proper stream for them in the University degree. These are
generally training courses that are provided to the students to develop their knowledge on
different aspects of the studies. There are some cases where the recruiters become hesitant in
recruiting the prospective employees, as they do not have foundation course. These basic
activities are performed by the foundation course, which is necessary for the students of the
United Kingdom to perform in order to erase the gaps of knowledge they have and develop
themselves to enter the University for a Degree at that level.
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Reference List
HEFCE, 2000. Foundation degree prospectus.
Krutkowski, S., 2017. A strengths-based approach to widening participation students in higher
education. Reference Services Review, 45(2), pp.227-241.
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.
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