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 Spanish Studies
Taught by the Department of Languages and Cultures, our approach enables you to acquire high-level language skills and a thorough understanding of French and Spanish cultures and societies within a global context. This degree includes an international placement in year 3.

You’ll begin your degree with French and Spanish courses which both have a language-specific cultural component.  You will also study a minor subject of your choice, which may be another language.

Building on your language skills in Year 2, you will also study the culture, politics and history of France and Spain in more depth, as well as selecting courses which are international in scope and promote a comparative understanding of Europe and beyond.

Spending your third year abroad 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.  As a joint major student, you can spend your time in a French- or Spanish-speaking country, or split the year between the two.

In your fourth year, you will continue developing your core French and Spanish language skills. You will combine this with language-specific modules such as ‘Game of (Spanish) Thrones: Treachery, War and Exile in Spanish Poetry (13th-20th c.)’. You may also choose some comparative culture courses, such as ‘Writing in the Margins: Narrating Cross-cultural Experience’.