Foundation Degrees

What is a foundation degree?
Foundation degrees are exciting, two-year vocational degrees, designed to give you a flying start towards your chosen career. If you’re already in work, they can provide you with extra skills to enhance promotion prospects.

Once you achieve the award, you’re able to add the letters FdA or FdSc after your name. You can also progress to an honours degree or other professional qualifications.

The courses will also suit you if you have

• qualifications at Level 3, a fairly clear idea of your intended profession and a desire to continue your studies at a higher level
• been in an occupation for a while and need the extra management skills to gain promotion
• an ambition to gain academic recognition for your skills.
  

If you’re a mature student without traditional qualifications, your previous work experience may make you eligible for the award. Professional experience is highly valued when applying to join Foundation Degrees.

You can choose to study full or part time. With the full time option, you’re primarily university based, but still get an excellent opportunity to become actively involved in the real world of work.  When you study part time, attendance at university is limited and your daily experience in the workplace will support your skills-based learning.  Our tutors will guide your study through Bucks’s Virtual Learning Environment and will help you achieve your award just as quickly as if you were with us full time.

Foundation degrees are distinctive because they are designed by employers and lecturers together – leading to work-based skills that are really valued. They also combine work-based learning and work-related learning with traditional academic teaching. We develop courses in sectors that are important to the modern, knowledge-based economy and ensure they’re flexible enough to fit in with your lifestyle.  Other features include:

• incorporation of professional qualifications, wherever possible
• opportunities to progress in your studies
• increased career prospects
  

Converting a foundation degree to an honours degree
All our foundation degrees have a designated ‘conversion to honours’ route. If you’re in work, you can apply for the BA (Hons) in Professional Studies, provided you have a Foundation Degree (FDa/FdSc), an HND, a Diploma in Higher Education or a professional qualification recognised as equivalent to an FDa or HND.  This is a one-year programme, after which you’ll have a fully recognised UK honours degree.

How is a foundation degree different to an HND?
The academic level is the same, but foundation degrees are available in a wider range of subjects. Designed with employer input from the outset, they’re vocationally relevant and useful for career progression and increased job prospects.  Many have been designed with local employers.