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 Theatre
Lancaster’s joint French Studies and Theatre degree is taught by the Department of Languages and Cultures in conjunction with Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA).  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 backgrounds in a global context. In Theatre, you’ll learn about innovative 20th and 21st century theatre and performance through an exciting and varied mix of practical and academic approaches.

Your first year comprises an exploration of the French language and its cultural context as well as an introduction to theatre’s key concepts and practical tools that culminates in a group performance project. Alongside this, you will study a minor subject of your choice.

Building on your language skills in Year 2, you will 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 modules such as ‘Performing the Avant-Garde’, ‘Modern Dance’ and ‘British Theatre and the State of the Nation (1945-2000)’.

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

In your final year, you consolidate your French language skills, and study specialist culture and comparative modules, such as ‘Witchcraft, Heresy, and the Inquisition: The Prosecution of ‘Otherness’ in Europe (14th-17th c.)’. You will also select LICA modules such as ‘Contemporary European Post-dramatic Theatre’, ‘Creative Enterprise’ and ‘Applied Theatre Practice II’.