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.

International Relations and Religious Diversity
A joint degree in Philosophy and Politics allows you to study and debate philosophical questions such as How should we live? Is there a God? Whilst exploring some of the themes, concepts and events that have shaped the contemporary political scene. Learning from academics in the field you will be given the opportunity to develop an understanding of contemporary issues in both subjects. For example, what obligations do we have to the state? Can ideas change the world? How should we think about right and wrong, truth and falsity?

You’ll begin your degree with first-year modules including Introduction to Philosophy, and Politics in the Modern World. In the second and fourth year students will be able to choose from a broad range of options, such as Politics and History of the Middle East; International Relations, Security and Sustainability; Politics of Development and Global Changes; Understanding Key Economic Concepts; Issues in Contemporary Politics and Philosophy. For more details and options, please see the PPR department website.

Through a range of modules on the programme, you will be able to explore the intersection of International Relations and Religious Diversity in contexts around the globe, including Europe, North America, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. Within these contexts, you will examine the impact of religion at sub and supra state levels and the ways in which religion plays a key role in both facilitating and restricting political agency.

You will begin your degree with the modules Religions of the Modern World and International Relations: Theory and Practice. In your second year, you’ll study subjects such as International Relations Security and Sustainability; Peace Studies in Action; International Relations and Politics of the Asia Pacific; Gender and Religion; The Politics of Race and Hinduism in the Modern World. You will then complete your degree with modules that include: Politics of Global Danger; Contemporary Issues in the Middle East and Media, Religion.