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.

Social Studies
The International Foundation Year in Social Studies leads to a choice of undergraduate degrees in the Faculty of Arts and Social Studies and the Faculty of Science and Technology. To prepare for your degree, you will study core English language modules and subject modules. Degree options include Philosophy, Sociology, and Film.

You will learn about global issues and contemporary events, including business, culture, politics and environment. Other areas of study include advertising, social media, psychology, and theories that relate to media and modern society.

French Studies and Philosophy
Lancaster’s joint French Studies and Philosophy degree is taught by the Department of Languages and Cultures in conjunction with the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion. This degree includes an international placement in year 3.

Your French Studies programme gives you the opportunity to acquire high-level language skills while gaining a thorough understanding of the country’s historical, cultural, social and political background in a global context. In Philosophy, you will cultivate your own critical perspective on philosophical problems and questions, and develop a range of methods for analysing, critically engaging with, and discussing such problems.

Your first year comprises an exploration of the French language and its cultural context as well as an introduction to some of the central problems in philosophy and the theories produced in response to them. Alongside this, you will study a minor subject of your choice.

  The first year philosophy module ‘Introduction to Philosophy' introduces students to key themes in the study of philosophy. Consciously drawing on a broad range of philosophical traditions -- Continental, Analytic, and non-Western -- it aims to present a comprehensive overview of various theoretical sub-disciplines within philosophy, but also to equip students with the ability to reason and think clearly about the most fundamental questions of human existence. The course, though designed as an introduction to the advanced degree-level study of philosophy, will also function as a self-standing introduction to philosophy suitable for those seeking to broaden their understanding of philosophy as it has been practiced throughout various traditions.’
Building on your language skills in Year 2, you will be given the opportunity to study the culture, politics and history of the French-speaking world in more depth, as well as selecting modules which are international in scope and promote a comparative understanding of Europe and beyond.  You will combine these with Philosophy modules such as, ‘Epistemology’, ‘Ethics: Theory and Practice’, and ‘Metaphysics’.

Spending your third year abroad in a French-speaking country gives you the opportunity to greatly improve your language proficiency, while deepening your intercultural sensitivity. You can study at a partner institution or conduct a work placement.

In the second and final years you will be able to choose from a broad range of philosophy modules, including for example: ‘Continental Philosophy; Logic and Language; Aesthetics; Moral Philosophy’. For more modules please see the PPR department website. In your final year, you consolidate your French language skills, and study specialist culture and comparative modules, such as ‘Imagining Modern Europe: Post-Revolutionary Utopias and Ideologies in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century’.