Foundation Year Students: Challenges and Solutions

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Running head: REPORT
Study Skills for Higher Education
Name of the Student:
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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Discussion..................................................................................................................................2
Importance of the foundation year for students from wide participation backgrounds.........2
Key challenges facing foundation year students....................................................................3
Impact of study skills on overcoming challenges by Foundation year students....................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
A foundation year is considered to be the stepping stone in the field of higher
education. This is possible if the individual do not have proper qualification to get enrolled in
the degree program. The courses of the subject are considered to be broad enough and thus it
provides a good introduction to the subject. In UK, there is much wider participation of the
students and this is considered to be essential in order to expand the higher education system.
Further, the supporters of widening participation must try to develop interest in their
particular subject at different times (Simm et al. 2011). This report will highlight the
importance of foundation year for students, the key challenges facing the foundation year and
the skills that are necessary in higher education in order to assist the students of the
foundation year to overcome the challenges.
Discussion
Importance of the foundation year for students from wide participation backgrounds
The Foundation Degree (FD) is launched by the Department of Education and
Employment in 2000. This has been developed in order to address the significant skill gaps
that is to be identified by the national Skill Task Force and the Leitch Review. An important
objective of the FD is to provide technical as well as professional skills at the intermediate
level, to contribute to the widening participation agenda by the provision of accessible and
new routes that is represented in HE so as to stimulate lifelong learning. This will provide
progression route to the students enrolled in Honours degree. It has been found that the
foundational degree is also different from the conventional undergraduate degree in terms of
work based and academic learning experiences. There should be vocational emphasis and this
is possible through the combination of technical skills and training practices along with
employability skills (Krutkowski 2017).

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It can be said that the FD offers more opportunities for work experience as well as
practical work compared to the academic honours degree course. The FDs also appeal to the
applicants with non-traditional or lower level entry qualification for which the entry
requirements is considered to be lower in Honours degree course. The matured students who
are above the age of 21 years are accepted on the basis of their past experiences or on the
basis of the interview that is set up by the Accreditation of Prior and Experiential Learning
students. Moreover, the students are selected in the FD courses through internet searches or
through the influence of their tutors. The database reveals that there should be diversity of
students in the specialist course related to different subjects (Simm et al. 2011). However, it
has been found that some students often gets confused with the marketing of FDs and they
believed that they were enrolled at a HE or FE college. There exists familiarity among this
colleges and thus it is regarded as a safety blanket while encountering the university
environment. The offsite students who gets enrolled in the FD programme direct from the
Honours course might have to face the struggle initially. Those students might also feel
excluded from the group and thus they might not be ready for the academic jumps (de Freitas
et al. 2015). Therefore, there should be careful steps taken to accommodate the students from
alternative pathways so as to make them more responsive to the personal and academic
needs.
Key challenges facing foundation year students
The foundation year students faces difficulty to cope up with the new study and how
it affects their wellbeing. The students do not get time for digging, exploring new ideas,
thinking around and thus they have to face struggle and difficulties. In most cases, it is seen
that the parents fail in developing their own interests and also in broadening the horizon
before they leave out a particular position. Moreover, some students also face difficulty to
manage the skills in using the libraries as well as writing essays (Simm et al. 2011). There are

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low key ways in order to stay in touch with the students when the child faces a breakdown or
a huge shock.
There are certain technologies that fails to pinpoint the grades and the waysides and
thus the students face the riskier position. It is necessary to carry out proper planning in order
to roll out the technology and to get a quick snapshot of the students who are at the critical
position. Further, there are some students who fails to handle the deadlines as they are
homesick and do not have the capacity to carry out the work voluntarily. The foundation
course students also feels shy to speak to the student support services when they struggle at
different stages of their education (Simm et al. 2011).
There are different types of barriers faced by the part time students in heterogeneous
groups and thus they fail to carry out the work commitments. The female students in most
cases were seen to handle different responsibilities apart from their studies. Thus, they face
challenges related to flexibility in the learning environment and this makes it difficult to
translate the personal transformation process. The learners also faces Hobson’s choice in
which there are no alternative options available to them. In certain cases, it has been found
that there is no such formal element in their course and thus they face difficulty in handling
the course due to personal and work demands (Masika and Jones 2016).
There are different policies that are related to the social mobility of the students and
thus this must be addressed accordingly. The needs of the students gets drowned with myopia
and thus they fail to fulfil the needs of the disadvantaged group. Moreover, there are many
such students who gets enrolled in the FD and they fail to work together in a group. There are
admission issues, marketplace problem and the validation issues and thus there should be
proper developmental strategies in order to handle the demands of the students in the correct
way. It has also been found that there is no effective induction program and thus the students

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fails to handle the infrastructure and the support system (Snape and Finch 2006). Therefore, it
is the responsibility of the management involved in the FD course to be more responsive and
solve the issues faced by the student.
Impact of study skills on overcoming challenges by Foundation year students
There has been huge issues and concern regarding the students in higher education
institutions, especially the foundation year students. This is widely increasing the need for the
high education institution to focus on widening the participation of underrepresented student
groups such as the one that is the student who does not perform well in previous years or
have low qualification. However, it is seen that such students has been facing huge issue in
coping up with the higher education for various reasons and demand study skills (Krutkowski
2017). One of the way through which the students will be able to cope up with the above
mentioned challenges is by integrating induction process into the subject specific curriculum
and help the student to learn by acquiring various study skills. There are many institution that
focus at using transparent and formative approaches or study skill that help the student to
develop understanding and learning in a better way (Crosling et al. 2009). This is because
process of induction skill help the students to adjust their learning, teaching, their motivation,
cognitive and other things according and allow for better grasp of information.
One other areas that the study skills in higher education institution can help to support
the foundation year student overcome the challenges is that the students will be offered with
the opportunity to reflect back on their experiences and employment and apply them on this
present learning so that they can learn in a practical manner. This will not only help them to
learn in the higher education, it will also allow them to use those learning in future
employment. Thus, experiential learning skills helps the student to learn new things without
much issue and relate the knowledge and skills gained from education on important aspect of
their life and experiences. Crosling et al. (2009) stated that there are various models that are

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used to provide education and academic support to foundation year student such as separate,
semi integrated and integrated curriculum. In various areas it is evident that student finds it
difficult to make transition from a structured way of learning in schools and colleges to a
higher education environment that has high level of autonomy. In such areas a formative way
of learning offers an integrated and structured study skill to students that offer them with all
successful skills and information that they can use throughout their life. This will allow them
to make successful transition to higher education and succeed in their academic sphere
(Boroch et al. 2007). Such way of learning as pointed above will help the foundation students
to overcome challenges like meeting deadlines, homesickness, concentration issue, team
working and others. One more way that will help the foundation program student to
overcome the issues they face during transition is strength based learning. This is because
such learning has the potential to help the students gather skills such as to better manage their
weaknesses and become independent in their learning experience. This will allow them to
seek their strengths and bring them above their weaknesses. Krutkowski (2017) has stated
that mapping instructions can also be used by the universities in which they can give
instructions about the library and align it with the strength based learning approach. This will
help the foundation year student that lacks certain ability to cope up with their challenge of
managing skills in using libraries. Thus, the approaches or study skills stated above such as
integrated learning, experiential learning, formative learning and strength based learning all
will contribute directly to the growth of understanding among the foundation year students
and overcome their challenges. However, the development and improvement of various
kinds of study skills is a long term process and thus its impact on the foundation year students
will be seen in long term. the skills that student acquire from the learning approaches in
higher education helps them to get involved in activities that brush their skills such as time

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management, reading skills, planning skills and others (Crosling et al. 2009). These skills in
turn act as a benefit for the student in fitting themselves easily in higher education.
Conclusion
From the above analysis it can be concluded that the use of various approaches in higher
education helps the universities to develop study skills among students that in turn impacts
their learning process and understanding. This is the way foundation year students are able to
overcome the challenges they face in higher education. It is seen that the foundation degree
has been launched in the department of education and employment to fill the significant gaps
that exists among the students. The objective of the foundation year program to help students
with skill issue to provide technical and professional skills so that they can participate in
higher education learning. The foundation year program offers an opportunity to gain more
work experience compared to only academic honors degree. This way of learning is
beneficial for the students that have left study for some reason or have not gained good marks
in their formal education in school or colleges. However, careful steps needs to be taken to
help the students accommodate easily in the environment of higher education so that they are
more responsive in their academic. However, the foundation year students is seen to face
various challenges while gaining high education such as timing issue, skill management
issue, learning issue, failure to handle deadlines, homesickness and others. The students in
foundation program seem to face issues in adjusting in new groups during the education and
fail in achieving their objectives.
Therefore, it becomes important to overcome these challenges so that the students can
learn better in higher education. For this purpose the skills that students acquire through
various learning approaches in higher education play a vital role. This is because a much
formative, integrated, experiential and strength based learning help develop strength,

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confidence and other study skills which in turn allow them to better adjust in transition period
as well as manage their study better.

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References
Boroch, D., Fillpot, J., Hope, L., Johnstone, R., Mery, P., Serban, A., Smith, B. and Gabriner,
R.S., 2007. Basic Skills as a Foundation for Student Success in California Community
Colleges. Research and Planning Group for California Community Colleges (RP Group).
Crosling, G., Heagney, M. and Thomas, L., 2009. Improving student retention in higher
education: Improving teaching and learning. Australian Universities' Review, The, 51(2), p.9.
de Freitas, S., Gibson, D., Du Plessis, C., Halloran, P., Williams, E., Ambrose, M., Dunwell,
I. and Arnab, S., 2015. Foundations of dynamic learning analytics: Using university student
data to increase retention. British Journal of Educational Technology, 46(6), pp.1175-1188.
Krutkowski, S., 2017. A strengths-based approach to widening participation students in
higher education. Reference Services Review, 45(2), pp.227-241.
Masika, R. and Jones, J., 2016. Building student belonging and engagement: insights into
higher education students’ experiences of participating and learning together. Teaching in
Higher Education, 21(2), pp.138-150.
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.
Snape, D. and Finch, S., 2006. Evaluation of the Early Years Sector-Endorsed Foundation
Degree: report of the follow-up student survey. London: Department for Education and
Skills.

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