Lifelong Learning Centre

The Business Studies with Foundation Year programme is a full-time, four year course which allows you to follow one of three pathways. Each pathway allows you to study towards a full honours degree from Leeds University Business School.

• Accounting pathway – this leads to the award of a BSc in Accounting and Finance
• Management pathway – this leads to the award of a BSc in Management
• Human Resource pathway – this leads to the award of BA in Human Resource Management

During the second year, the Work Experience module allows you to apply your learning whilst on a work placement and the Business Simulation module allows you to make decisions as part of the senior management team of a fictitious organisation.

These first two years have been designed to offer you academic, personal and professional development in a supportive and encouraging environment. This will help to ensure that you have the academic knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the third and fourth years of study.

Admissions

Applications should be made via UCAS. Please use your personal statement to outline your experience of learning, your ambitions for further study and, if relevant, your journey since leaving formal education. Applications received after the 15th January UCAS deadline will still be considered for the programmes.

Shortlisted applicants are normally invited to a selection day and/or interview to assess their commitment and potential.

Is this for me?

There can be good reasons why someone does not achieve their best at school or college. Your learning may have been disrupted by adverse circumstances; you may have had limited opportunities or support; you may have left formal education some time ago and gained experience, abilities and maturity that you did not have when you were younger.

Foundation courses at the Lifelong Learning Centre are designed especially for learners in such situations as part of the University’s commitment to being a diverse community that welcomes students from all backgrounds.

What we are looking for in applicants is less about prior qualifications and more about your capacity for hard work and dedication to realising your potential. Priority is given to applicants whose residual household income is less than £25,000 and who meet at least one of the following criteria:

• you will be the first member of your immediate family (excluding older brothers or sisters or your own children) to achieve a degree
• you attended a school which achieved less than the national average of 5 A*-C passes at GCSE
• your studies have been adversely affected by circumstances in your personal, social or domestic life
• your permanent address is in a neighbourhood with low progression to higher education
• you grew up in public care

Will this cost more?

If you meet the criteria listed in the previous section your fees for the foundation year will be covered fully by the University and you will be eligible for financial support to help with living costs. This means that, even with the added foundation year, your overall programme should not cost any more than if you had progressed directly onto a degree. For more information see the fees and financial section below.

If your residual household income is more than £25,000 or you have other queries about fees and finance please contact the Lifelong Learning Centre to discuss the options that are open to you.

How will I be taught?

There is a strong emphasis in our foundation courses on helping you to develop skills for success. Teaching is imaginative and supportive to make sure that you are intellectually stretched and helped through any sticking points in your learning. Group sizes are small enough for you to engage actively and be well supported by your peers. Members of the Lifelong Learning Centre staff team are available to offer help with all aspects of your progress and you will have periodic individual meetings with your personal tutor to help you realise your goals. We also provide continuing support once students transfer from the Lifelong Learning Centre to other parts of the University.

How will I be assessed?

Methods of assessment reflect those that you will find later in your degree programme in order to ensure that you are well prepared for your continuing study. We see assessment as a key way of enabling you to learn by doing and make sure that feedback from tutors supports this process.

Better jobs and professional enhancement

A qualification from Leeds counts: our graduates are highly valued by employers. When you complete your degree programme, you will also become part of a network of highly employable graduates. From the very start of your foundation year there will be support to help you to use your time at university to maximise your opportunities for career development.