Program Overview

An International Foundation Year at our International Study Centre prepares you for your degree at Lancaster University. You will focus on English language, university-level study skills, and academic modules that relate to your degree subject.

Supporting your progression to the University
At the International Study Centre, we take every measure to ensure you are supported in your academic journey. Our programmes allow for increased time spent learning, researching and developing your skills. By studying with us, you will benefit from:

• Formal assessments at the end of each term.
• An improved English language module, Academic English Skills, providing greater opportunity for informal assessments and feedback.
• Combining and reducing the number of module assessments allowing more time to prepare.
• A personal tutorial system with a focus on your academic progress at key points of the academic year, creating action plans based on your performance and progession options.

Life Sciences
The International Foundation Year in Life Sciences leads to a choice of degrees in the Faculty of Health and Medicine and in the Faculty of Science and Technology. To prepare for your degree, you will study subject modules and core English language modules. Degree options include Biochemistry, Biomedical Science, and Ecology.

You will learn about cell structure and function, as well as physiological processes in animals. Other areas of study include plant biology, genetics and ecology. Mathematic techniques are part of the course, and you will apply your understanding to real-life situations.

Geography

You will undertake an extensive course of study, gain a wide range of skills and have the opportunity to cover many innovative and exciting modules that make Geography at Lancaster distinctive.

For example, you could launch your teaching career with our unique Communicating Geography programme. This programme is a distinctive feature of your degree course and gives you experience of working in a local school in order to develop your own project on a geographical topic. It will also help you to develop vital career skills. Alongside this you can take options such as Introduction to Eco-Innovation, where you work with academics and staff from companies based in our Environment Centre, or our Iceland field course on Glacier-Landscape Interactions.

During your second year you will study core modules covering skills and concepts in Geography and will also take a number of optional modules. Your third year includes the completion of an in-depth dissertation and six further modules chosen from a range of areas of Geography.

In the fourth and final year of your degree you will undertake a dissertation. You will also take four modules from the wide range of masters-level modules on offer by our Environment Centre including Geoinformatics, Environmental Justice and Climate Change and Society.