Program Overview

International Foundation Year in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities
The International Foundation Year in Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities is designed to prepare you for the first year of your undergraduate degree at Royal Holloway. This is a fast-paced, three-term foundation programme, specifically designed for international students interested in beginning their international education journey.

What you will study
The programme consists of core and pathway-specific modules. The core modules will improve your academic and English language skills, while the pathway-specific ones will build specific knowledge about your progression degree.

Once you have successfully completed your International Foundation Year and achieved the required progression grades, you will be well-equipped to start your undergraduate degree at Royal Holloway.

Leading to: Digital Media Culture and Technology BA

Our lives are shaped and mediated by the digital. Social platforms, streaming and viral media, personalisation algorithms, gaming and creative digital content have changed what it means to be a human today. This innovative degree will allow you to become an expert in the practices and cultures of digital media and to understand how they have transformed almost every industry. It will also give you the industry-standard skills to create the best digital media content in the world and prepare you for a flourishing career in the creative digital industries.

The creative industries are the UK’s fastest-growing economic sector, worth £71.4 billion a year and making up 5.6% of the work force (Department of Culture, Media & Sport), and within the creative industries, digital media looks set to grow the fastest over the next few years. Opportunities are everywhere and this degree will equip you for an exciting career in this ground-breaking field, giving you the critical and creative skills to excel in media production and an appreciation of the technologies that make it all go round.

We want you each to define and go in your own direction. Our students graduate to work in communication and social media, video games, music, TV and film, events, academia, journalism and many other fields. With digital skills–the richest currency in the world of employment today–you can take your degree in any direction you want. With that in mind, we create bespoke tailored degree pathways so that you can study the things you love and care about and develop the skills you want. Our first year gives you a taster of everything, from interactive storytelling, film-making and digital journalism to creative code, web and game design and media theory. In years two and three you can choose from a wide selection of modules to tailor your degree to your interests.

Our degree enables you to learn how media works on a number of levels that form the basis of today's digital communications. We put heavy emphasis on project-based learning and regular industry involvement and as a member of our community you can take advantage of our vast network of connections. Our broad curriculum will also prepare you for more advanced study in media arts or related fields if you decide to progress within academia.

• Emphasis on project-based learning.
• Alternative BSc (P304) pathway available taught in collaboration with the Department of Computer Science.
• Study how digital media works on both aesthetic and technical levels.
• Industry involvement from our outstanding networks.
• Immersion in 24-7 state-of-the-art media arts facilities.

From time to time, we make changes to our courses to improve the student and learning experience. If we make a significant change to your chosen course, we’ll let you know as soon as possible.