 Hello, my name is William Heatherington and I'm head of the IFSELS department at SAWAS University of London and this presentation is really to tell you about our ICC International Foundation Programme. I think it's probably best first of all to differentiate this programme from the Foundation Year programme which is also offered by SAWAS which is part of a four-year degree, four or five-year degree but it's part of an undergraduate degree. The ICC International Foundation Programme is a standalone one-year programme which is provided by SAWAS and it's predominantly for international students who need to do an extra year of study or have not got the relevant grades to be able to get direct entry to SAWAS. In terms of the presentation itself, I'll be first of all saying a little bit about our department and then talking about the strengths of the ICC International Foundation programme. I'll then spend some time going through the content of the programme both in terms of the structure and then a little more detail in terms of the modules that are available for students to study over the year. Then I'll say a little bit about the workload, how the timetable works, how many hours students study and also how they are assessed and then I'll spend a little bit time talking about progression because we have students progressing to SAWAS at undergraduate level but we also have students progressing to other universities as well so I can give you some information about that. Then I will leave you with my email address so if you have any questions you want to ask me then you can always contact me directly for more detailed information. So in terms of our department if-sales which stands for International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies, we have a number of objectives that we are trying to achieve through a range of different programmes that we offer and the ICC Foundation programme is one of them. So first of all we are we are trying to prepare students for degree level study whether that is undergraduate level or postgraduate level because we run a pre-masters programme as well. We're trying to provide students with a range of different academic subjects that they can study really ranging from arts and humanities modules through social science and business and finance as well in terms of the undergraduate foundation programme, the ICC Foundation programme. We're also as well as obviously as well as trying to develop students English. We're also focusing very strongly on the academic study skills that students need to develop in order to adapt to a UK higher education culture. For a lot of students the transition from studying at predominantly at higher school in their own country to students studying at university in the UK, that transition is quite significant and so students do need time and they need strong and clear guidance on how to adapt their approach to study in order to be able to really develop the skills that are suitable for university study in the UK. We have an approach which really tries to combine academic study with academic English study as well so many of the academic English lessons that students attend on our programmes are actually combined and integrated into the academic modules that they study so normally students will for each of their academic modules they will have two different teachers they will have a lecturer for the academic content and they will have a subject specific English support teacher who is helping them both in terms of their language but also in terms of the comprehension of the content of the modules in terms of the development of critical skills so that students can engage with the content of academic modules at some depth and so this combination of two teachers is very effective both in students being able to develop English and study skills which are really focused on particular subject areas but it also gives them a chance to review and reflect on the content and the ideas the concepts the theories that they're being presented with by the lecturer as well. And finally we're trying to provide students with a university campus experience as well campuses in the UK can be quite different to campuses in other universities in the world. SOAS has a very distinctive campus a very dynamic a very passionate and a very multicultural campus and so it's a really exciting place for students to really familiarise themselves with campus life not just in terms of studies but being able to develop strong links to other areas of the university including the student union and the clubs and societies that are that are available through them and also the student support services so advice and well-being careers things like that so it's really important for us to give our students the opportunity to really engage with all aspects of the university through a strong campus experience and obviously last year it was very very difficult with pandemic this year we have a larger number of students who are studying on campus over the first term some are on campus and some online and then hopefully by the second half of this year all students will again be studying on campus and our students study on campus as well so we're not separated at all from the rest of the university. So in terms of the strengths of the ICC foundation program for me they're very very clear strengths so it's easy for me to be able to present them to you and our foundation program is quite distinctive in a number of different ways first of all it's very well established and the ICC foundation program has been running for over 30 years so it's an integral part of SOAS but it's also very well known by other universities within the University of London but also across the UK and so it's a useful way for students to be able to prepare themselves for study at a range of different universities and we do have students applying to many different universities in the UK for their undergraduate study. So last year so the students last year they got offers from around about 13, now yeah 13 of the top 20 universities in the UK so it's well recognized, it's recognized as a serious foundation program and therefore it is well respected by other universities. Rather than offering straight pathways we offer a range of different modules that students can take. There are some constraints on the combinations that students can take but really what we're trying to do is give students a choice so that they can choose subjects that they are motivated by that they're interested in and that they feel confident that they can perform well in as well and as I mentioned before these range from business finance through social sciences and arts and humanities subjects as well. The the program has been running for a long time and also many of the staff have been working within the if sales department for a long time and around about 80 percent of the staff have taught within our department for at least 10 years and quite a number have been teaching for at least 20 years so there is a wealth of teaching experience within the staff and they have a very clear understanding of the challenges that international students face when starting their studies in the UK and the kinds of demands that are put on students and the ways that they have to adapt in order to prepare themselves fully for undergraduate study at SOAS and other universities around the country. As I've said before you know we're trying to give students a university campus experience I mean obviously this is a central London campus students have full SOAS status so they have access to the world renowned library one of five national libraries within the UK the student union student support they will predominantly use accommodation halls of residence that are populated by other SOAS students so again it's very it's much easier for students on our foundation program to feel part of a university student cohort as well and finally yes the location is very useful it is in central London it is in walking distance from a whole range of different museums art galleries theatres cinemas and shopping areas parks and so there is a lot that students can discover about London while they're studying as well okay so moving on now to a bit more about the structure of the ICC foundation program and then I'll look in a bit more detail at the modules that students can take so so first of all students will take four different modules and two of those modules are compulsory so all students take those modules and then students choose two additional elective academic subject modules from a range of eight and so you can see you can see from the list that the the two compulsory modules are academic English and understanding the modern world understanding the modern world is a compulsory academic module so students attend lectures around subjects connected to modern society global modern society I'll talk a little bit more about that in a minute there is also a range of elective academic modules there's business studies economics there are other social science subjects politics international law and development studies and then there are some arts and humanities subjects like media and communications world history and world art and literature so there's a really good range of subjects that students can choose to follow during the year and students will choose these they'll choose four modules and they will study them through the whole year so looking at the modules in a bit more detail the academic English module to some extent it's really trying to focus on what we might call academic discourse so this is not specifically or only to do with language it's more to do with how students are expected to use English in an academic context and so it's it's really a connection between the the English that is required the study skills that are required for the different activities that students participate in during their studies whether that's lectures or seminar tutorials whether that's research reading or delivering academic presentations so you've got the language you've got the academic study skills and you've also got critical thinking so it's also partly trying to get students to develop a what we call a critical approach to their studies and and so what this really means in terms of what I mean by critical approach is that students are going beyond merely understanding what they're reading or understanding what they're talking about and they get and they get to a point where they can evaluate they can look at the strengths and the weaknesses of concepts of theories that they're being that they're covering in their classes and they can start to develop their own ideas and their own perspectives and this is really really important because much of what students do in terms of writing I mean producing English whether that's writing or whether that's discussions in seminars or whether that's presentations students are encouraged to develop their own perspectives and present those perspectives so it's really trying to get a combination of language improving students vocab range of vocabulary improves the accuracy of their language but also connecting that to essential core study skills and then also this development of a critical awareness as well understanding the modern world is really a very broad kind of foundational fundamental kind of academic module and it's really trying to get students to think about how we have got to where we are now it's it takes a historical approach so it goes back and it starts looking at developments in economics in politics in social issues around the world so that students can start to see how society has developed how globalization is affecting that development as well and kind of where we are now and I think it's a very important thing for students to understand that in order to understand current contemporary issues they need to have an understanding of the historical development of those issues as well in terms of the elective academic modules as you can see there's a there's a range of eight ranging from something like business studies and economics where students are really developing a core knowledge of key concepts and key theories these two take quite an international perspective and a lot of what students are doing is they're they're studying theory and concepts and then they're actively trying to apply those to real life situations in the business world in economic systems so that they can then start to see how well the theories apply to these contexts and they can start to develop that critical sense in terms of politics again it's quite theoretical it starts quite in quite a kind of theoretical mode so against students are looking at fundamental political theories you know ranging around democracy liberal liberalism and then looking at some political systems like totalitarianism fascism and then going into other areas of political theory like feminism environmentalism as well and then again students have the have the opportunity through presentation of more kind of subjects around international relations and they're encouraged then to apply these theories to domestic and international political contexts Development Studies is a core subject within SOAS generally SOAS obviously is focused on the study of Africa Middle Eastern Asia and the Development Studies module is really giving students the a kind of basic understanding of the development process different aspects of the development process so it's what we would call quite a quite a multidisciplinary subject because it takes in economic issues and political and social issues and also cultural issues as well the the development of a society can have a significant impact on the cultures of those societies as well so it's really quite broad ranging in this approach Law in international society is really focusing on international law rather than any kind of national law and that's really so that students are not having to get too bogged down in you know for example English common law they're looking more conceptually at international law and how international law affects the legislation within countries but also it affects it has an impact on both countries but also individuals as well so it also takes into account things like human rights issues but also looking at at a national level use of force economic relations economic trade as well so again it's quite a broad ranging but it really does give students the chance to develop strong legal study skills. Media and communications again it's not it's not it's not a practical module it is more academic and more theoretical and I suppose the main questions that students are dealing with is is really looking at mass media contemporary mass media and communication and how contemporary mass media or media generally has shaped modern society so and this is particularly true I think over the last year or so the pandemic and how through lockdowns really everyone has been communicating everyone has been obtaining information and data through media and therefore it's it's very interesting for students to be able to think more about the the extent to which we are influenced by media and the development of media the power of media companies that power and influence both economic but also political and social and cultural power so again it's got some very big ideas that it's dealing with. World history is a history module but it's also what we could call a historiography module as well it's trying to get students to think about what it is to study history so some fundamental questions not just about history itself but the study of history and it's really looking at the last 600 years and again taking a global look at history and particularly at political the development of political and economic systems within that time but as I said before it's really also trying to get students to move away from a very traditional way of studying history and understand that history is very much to do with interpretation of the past and that history is subjective that it it doesn't really refer to things like historical facts there isn't really such a thing as a historical fact everything is interpreted by historians and therefore as history students the way students read history books has to be more subjective and to some extent students are encouraged not not necessarily to believe everything that they read in history books at face value. Finally world art and literature this is a very interesting module which gives students a combination of literary and artistic movements it introduces students to that and so as well as looking separately I mean it is taught separately so there are there are 10 weeks of world literature and then 10 weeks of world art and as well as but as well as studying those individually or separately students are also looking at the interconnection between them and looking at particular movements particular areas of the world and how art and literature are interconnected quite inextricably. So that gives you an idea of the the kinds of things that students study and now I want to just talk a bit more about actually how the students go about studying the workload and the assessment. So in terms of academic English sorry sorry we're starting with the academic modules as I've mentioned already there are students will have two different teachers for each of their modules they have a lecturer and they have a subject specific English support teacher working together and so the so the classes are a combination of these working together as well. So students will have a lecture each week for each module and a tutorial seminar discussion really seminar is really talking about small group discussion with the lecturer so students will be presented with ideas in the lecture and then they have to discuss these ideas and extend beyond the ideas in the lecture in the seminar discussion. They also have three hours of three hours of lecture review and subject specific reading and writing support and so this gives the student the chance to review the content of the lecture prior to the seminar discussion so they have the chance really to get a deeper understanding of the content of the lecture but also it gives students the chance to start to reflect more critically on the content as well and then there are subject specific reading and writing classes as well which focus on for example differences between how students are expected to write four different subjects if you are attending world art and literature you're going to have to write about art and literature in a very different way to students who might be studying introductory business studies or economics so it's very important for students to understand the different forms of expression whether that's written or verbal that they are expected to use within those subject areas and it also gives students the chance to develop the kind of reading skills that are necessary again at a subject specific level the way that students the way that people write about art and literature or about economics is very very different and therefore it's important for students to understand those differences so that they can start to read as effectively as possible and research through reading as effectively as possible as well. The academic English class is just there's a two hour writing class and a one hour speaking class per week and this is focusing more generically on academic writing and academic speaking writing focuses very much on essay writing and what will be regarded as a generic academic essay which is in fact very very different to what some students may have learned in IELTS for example IELTS is a very very different style of writing to how you actually how you're expected to write at university and the oracy class is focusing first of all on seminar discussions so to help students develop an understanding of how they're expected to participate in discussions which they which they do in their academic modules and also in the second half of the year academic presentation and so students will work in classes and in small groups but they will be individually starting to present ideas so that they can build up the confidence and an awareness of how presentations should be structured. Understanding the modern world is of course the third academic module that students take and again students will have a lecture and a tutorial from their lecturer and they will have two hours of lecture review based around the lectures that they're attending so that's four hours there is also a quite regular one-to-one engagement with different members of staff with lecturers themselves normally connected to the assignments that students are doing the assessed coursework that students are doing they also have engagement with their academic English teachers quite regularly just looking at the development of their English every student is given a personal tutor sometimes called an academic advisor and students can have one-to-one sessions with their personal tutor about more individual issues connected to their study or maybe connected to their practical life or maybe how their practical life might be influencing or having an impact on their studies so it's really important that students have somebody who they can go to to talk individually about those issues they might then be passed on to the students service or it might be actually a relatively simple thing to solve but can only really be solved through a discussion with somebody who's more familiar with the context there are also UCAS tutorials so obviously students at on the ICC foundation program will be going on to undergraduate study and therefore they have to make their undergraduate applications through the UCAS system and and so over the first term students develop their UCAS applications through small group and one-to-one meetings with specialist members of staff within our department in terms of the assessment students will have for their for their academic modules they will have terminally assignments so basically two assignments one for each term and those will normally include a written assignment but could include other formats like group presentations or individual presentations so or it could be a combination of a presentation with some kind of writing connected to it as well students will also develop the portfolio in their academic English module which will contain a number of kind of ongoing homework and coursework which they are doing and then there are final written and oral exams in terms of the academic modules it's all written in terms of academic English there is a written exam and there is an oral exam where students will deliver a presentation which is actually connected to their understanding the module so that there is a connection between what students are studying on that particular academic module and then how they are presenting their ideas in their own individual presentations as well so finally just to look at progression and where students go on to study at undergraduate level and I'm I'm pleased to say even with the the pandemic that the progression of our students was very strong this year as in previous years so in 2020 so this is students who completed their their ICC program this summer and now have now progressed to undergraduate study so students got offers from 25 different UK universities and and then in terms of progression actual progression in the end they progressed to 13 different universities the majority of students have stayed within the University of London and that's quite common so this year around about 80 percent of our students stayed within the University of London and that could be at SOAS or it could be at one of the other institutions so this year as well as progressing to SOAS we had students progressing to LSE, Kings, Queen Mary, City and Goldsmiths we would normally also have at least one student or two students progressing to UCL but I think this year students may be and certainly we got offers students got offers to study at UCL but maybe students decided to go elsewhere for whatever reason and we tried very hard to get students to think carefully not just in terms of the level of the institution but the suitability of the approach that that University might take to particular subjects and that sometimes can mean that students don't necessarily go to what they might what might be the predictable first choice because maybe they don't think it is suitable for them individually. Around the country students also progressed to Bath and Bristol Lancaster University of the Arts London Warwick Westminster in London again and York so again generally speaking they are progressing to high level universities either in London around the UK so just to get just to kind of drill down a bit further into the kinds of programs that they have gone on to study well at SOAS it's a it's a whole range you can see but I think the most probably the most popular subjects for our ICC students ICC Foundation students within the suite of undergraduate programs that SOAS offers I think economics is popular development studies as well although quite often it's in combination with other subjects history of arts is normally strong international relations and politics law management social anthropology languages you can see there's a student there who's going on to study social anthropology in Japanese last year we had students going on to study international relations and international relations and Chinese so the other thing you might notice there is there's a number of students who are taking combined honours courses so two different subject areas and again that's quite a common thing within SOAS not necessarily so common within other universities but it does mean that students do have the opportunity to maybe if they have a particular interest or a particular regional interest they can then look at it through two different subject focuses in terms of the rest of the students progressing outside of SOAS you can see there I hope actually I hope it isn't too small for you to see I just noticed how small it is on screen but again social science subjects management accounting and finance politics university of the arts again for things like fashion management Westminster is always a strong from marketing and and also a goldsmith for example they're not this year but normally a goldsmith students may well be progressing to goldsmiths to study a media and communications or media related subjects kings is also very popular for that as you can see culture media and creative studies so again a very wide range of different subjects that students go on to study their following year so just to finish off just to say that for SOAS students are students get guaranteed for the for the programs that they apply for that they apply for through UCAS before the mid-january deadline the UCAS the initial the first UCAS deadline is in mid-january so if students students on the ICC foundation program have applied for a SOAS subject a SOAS program in that by that initial deadline then they will get an automatic conditional offer there are some eligibility requirements but but only for a very that's normally for example mathematical requirements for particular types of programs like BSC economics rather than BA economics so so for the vast majority of programs students can can get a guaranteed conditional offer by studying on ICC and the offers will be conditional on them achieving a particular mark overall average mark in the in the in the academic modules of the program but also achieving a particular minimum academic English module as well as I mentioned already SOAS is the UCAS application process is supported by a team of staff within our department they're also teachers as well but they've developed a strong interest in and a deep a deep knowledge of the UCAS application process and so they're able to give clear guidance to our students well that's really all I wanted to present to you today I hope hopefully that's that gives you something to focus on if you do have any any questions then feel free to email me at the address there WH2 at soas.ac.uk and I'm more than happy to go into more detail if you if you want to talk to somebody about about progressing or going to or applying to foundation programs then again you can always arrange a meeting through teams or zoom or something like that anyway thank you very much for listening and watching this presentation and hopefully we might see some of you next September okay bye