International Foundation Programme in Social Science
UCAS Code: L900
Foundation Diploma - Fd Dip
Entry requirements
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About this course
The International Foundation Programme in Social Science offers you to the chance to develop a solid foundation for an exciting career in social sciences. You will get a taste for many of the subjects we offer, to help you choose which path you’d like to follow.
Exploring the world of modern politics, you will study topics including foreign relations and conflict resolution, learning to analyse and evaluate political events and developments.
A developmental psychology module will teach you how cognition, language and perception develop in children and how research using children is conducted. In addition, you will study the sociology of identities and inequalities.
All the modules included in the programme encourage you to develop skills in critical thinking, and independent study. Classes are designed to stimulate new ways of thinking and approaching topics, leaving you fully prepared to join the School of Languages and Social Sciences on an undergraduate degree programme. This course is for non-EU international students only.
Modules
The course provides a thorough grounding in the key subjects you will need to successfully pursue a degree at Aston in Politics, International Relations, Sociology/Social Policy, or English (Literature/Language). The core modules include:
•The world of modern politics
•Introduction to data analysis
•Identities and Inequalities
•Developmental Psychology, and Professional Skills
You will also pick one optional module from a range including modules in Business and Science.
Assessment methods
As with a University degree, you can expect to attend lectures and seminars which support your independent study. You will be assessed by a variety of methods including written coursework, exams and presentations.
The Academic Language Skills modules are taught by CELCA (Centre for English Language & Communication at Aston) which has a long tradition of teaching excellence in the field of English as a Foreign Language.
The Uni
Aston University, Birmingham
School of Social Sciences and Humanities
What students say
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology, social policy and anthropology
Sorry, no information to show
This is usually because there were too few respondents in the data we receive to be able to provide results about the subject at this university.
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Sociology, social policy and anthropology
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
This section covers a range of subjects that are often very different, so if you have a particular course in mind, the data here might not fully reflect the possible outcomes from your particular choice. Graduates from these subjects tend to do similar sorts of things to graduates from other social studies courses, so welfare and community roles are common, as are education, whilst graduates also often go into management, marketing and HR jobs and jobs in the police, and employment rates are good in general — but talk to course tutors and attend open days and try to get stats for the course you’re interested in.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Sociology, social policy and anthropology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£21k
£22k
£29k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA).
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
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