Program Overview

International Foundation Year in Business, Law and Social Studies
The programme includes academic modules, study skills and English language training, providing complete preparation for undergraduate degree.

On the Business, Law and Social Studies route, you will:

• learn about the importance of financial management, and the operational and strategic challenges facing the businesses
• gain understanding of the concepts and models of micro-economic and macro-economic analysis
• develop core mathematical skills that will be relevant to your undergraduate degree
• gain business skills, including decision-making and problem solving
• for Law, you will study the English legal system, the mechanics of the legal process, justice and those who administer it.

What will you study?
Over the two-semester programme, you will study a number of core modules that relate to your progression degree. The modules have been designed by expert academics at the International Study Centre, in collaboration with LJMU, to ensure you have the skills you need to succeed upon progression to the University.

Core modules

• Business, Marketing, Management and Public Relations
• Economics
• Academic English Skills
• Introduction to Business
• Introduction to Law
• Maths for Business
• Project Study
• The Law of Contract and Consumer Protection

Upon successful completion of the International Foundation Year, and achieving the required grades, you will join the first year of your undergraduate degree at Liverpool John Moores University.

Leading to: Criminology and Sociology BA (Hons)

The BA (Hons) Criminology and Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University combines two contemporary and popular disciplines, providing you with grounding in core elements of both subjects, together with a wide range of optional modules that will enable you to follow your own pathway.

Throughout the course you will be encouraged to develop your critical thinking skills by questioning what we mean by the terms 'crime', 'criminals', 'punishment' and 'justice'. You will learn about the institutions of the criminal justice system and study areas like corporate crime, state crime, miscarriages of justice, policing and drugs. The two disciplines share many concerns, and our degree brings the two subjects together in ways which emphasise the areas of social policy, the variable impact of age, class, gender, sexuality, religion and ethics, disability and ethnicity on social life.

The degree is taught in the Sociology department, and your personal tutor will be a sociologist. The modules will be taught by a team of well-qualified, experienced and dedicated staff from the Sociology and Criminology departments.

You will study social science research methods, including qualitative surveys and qualitative techniques, and be provided with a thorough grounding in theoretical perspectives which are drawn upon in the critical investigations of societies and of criminology.

The degree carefully fosters an international perspective on society and criminology, considers the relationships between the local and the global, and includes opportunities to study abroad, undertake educational field work visits to South Asia or Europe.

Pathways can be built through the study of modules, which concentrate ecological issues, social policy and cultural analysis of media, music, sport and religion. You will also receive training in sociological methods and sociological and criminological theory.

The degree also offers you exciting work-based and work-related opportunities to gain professional experience relevant to your degree.