Academic Practice aims to help you understand the role of University and how you can engage meaningfully with University life in order to make the most of your experience. It will provide guidance on active reading, critical analysis, communication and presentation skills, team-working, note-taking in lectures, and understanding different ways of learning. You will benefit from interactive lectures, working in groups and observing a range of teaching environments.
Foundation Year
You will study four modules in the autumn and spring terms, and work on an individual project in the spring and summer terms.
The modules you will take will help build your maths and statistics skills, your organisational problem-solving skills, such as creativity, leadership and teamwork, and give you a chance to work on academic practices like research, critical thinking, and university level writing. They will also develop your knowledge on general areas of business, like marketing, operations management, accounting and finance, and help you conduct research to solve real organizational problems.
You will work mainly in seminar-style classes with around 25 students for at least 12 hours per week, which will equip you with the skills, knowledge and depth of understanding that you will need to continue learning independently between sessions. You will be assessed by a mix of examinations, presentations, group-work and coursework which are intended to give you diverse preparation for the types of assessments you will be given in your first year and beyond.
Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress to the first year of either the BSc Accounting and Finance or BSc Management. You will then follow the same course of study as direct-entry students.
Course modules
Academic Practice
Academic Practice aims to help you understand the role of University and how you can engage meaningfully with University life in order to make the most of your experience. It will provide guidance on active reading, critical analysis, communication and presentation skills, team-working, note-taking in lectures, and understanding different ways of learning. You will benefit from interactive lectures, working in groups and observing a range of teaching environments.
Individual Project
You will develop key research skills and apply these, together with the knowledge and skills you have gained from each of the other modules, during a four-week placement in a local business. You will write up a short case-study based on your placement experience.
Business Mathematics and Statistics
You will learn how to apply mathematical and statistical tools to ‘real world’ business situations. You will construct spreadsheet models, and learn how to use a statistical analysis package to collect and assemble data in order to answer a research question. Classes will take place in lectures, seminars and lab environment.
Problem Solving in Organisations
In this module we aim to equip students with the capacity to effectively communicate, solve problems and be creative and innovative in their work, learning and other daily tasks. Problem-solving skills can improve students' success in the classroom, in their daily lives and, more importantly, in their careers. Some of the topics we will discuss are decision making biases, how to identify problems and come up with solutions, how to help teams solve problems together, negotiation and conflict management, among others.
Foundations of Business
You will analyse a business case-study that grows in complexity with time. In the process, you will learn about each of the key business functions.
