Your foundation degree, what next? : Degrees

Where to continue to study

There are several options open:

• At your current institution: If an institution offers a foundation degree, it must also provide a suitable progression route so that the student may continue with their studies. You may wish, therefore, to study for a degree at the same place at which you got your foundation degree. This is likely to be the most straightforward option and may only be dependent upon completing your foundation degree.
• The institution where you degree was validated: If you have studied at an institution that cannot award degrees, such as a further education college, progression to the institution where your degree is validated may be the easiest option. Before you commit to anything, you should investigate what will be different about studying at another institution and how you feel about this.
• A different university: Progression to a different university is another possibility. This may be more complicated as some of the onus will be on you to investigate things further and establish whether this is a realistic option.
• Distance learning: It may be possible to progress on to a degree through a distance learning route. Check with your preferred university to see if they offer this as an option. Alternatively, the Open University (OU)  offers a range of foundation degrees which offer ‘top up’ progression pathways.  
• Overseas: Progression to a university abroad can be an option providing you undertake plenty of research. UK NARIC (National Recognition Information Centre for the United Kingdom)  is the national agency responsible for providing information and advice on vocational, academic and professional skills from over 180 countries worldwide. They will be able to help with comparing your qualifications in the country in which you wish to study.

UK qualification frameworks and credit systems

Credit systems are in place to provide greater flexibility and easier transfer between courses at different institutions. It means that students awarded credit by one institution may then have that credit recognised by another. Qualification credit points and systems can vary across institutions and courses, so it is important to check with each institution individually.

The Framework for Higher Education Qualifications (FHEQ)  sets foundation degrees as a level 5 qualification. It can be seen in comparison to other qualifications in the below table. 

Credit guidelines for HE qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are developed by the following bodies: 

• Southern England Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SEEC)
• Northern Universities Consortium for Credit Accumulation and Transfer (NUCCAT)
• Credit and Qualifications Framework for Wales (CQFW)
• Northern Ireland Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (NICATS)

Scotland offers a different framework; if you are considering transferring your studies to Scotland, refer to the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) .

Progression to honours level

Of the 99,000 current foundation degree students, most will progress onto further study, usually a one-year honours degree. The majority ‘top up’ immediately after graduating, although a significant minority will return to ‘top up’ at a later point in their career (Foundation Degrees: Key statistics 2001-02 to 2009-10, HEFCE, 2010).

There are different ways of progressing onto an honours degree:

• Joining at year three - Providing students meet the credit requirements, most programmes offering direct progression to honours level specify one academic year as the normal length for completion.
• Joining at year two - This may apply if you want to study for an honours degree which is a different subject than your foundation degree with a slightly different pathway.
• Joining at year one - This option is mainly where no transfer is possible because the subject is completely different, possibly due to a career change or because of professional requirements. 

What are your options on graduating?

If you intend to progress to an honours degree, you will need to find out where it can lead you and what your choices will be upon graduating. For help with this, you should look up the destination data for previous graduates from the course. All institutions and courses have to collect and publish such information. You may also want to refer to options with your subject for details of individual, subject-specific destinations.

In practice, a large number of vacancies do not specify a required subject. Class of degree, however, is often significant to employers, with some specifying an upper second, or better, as a minimum requirement for their graduate training schemes.

BA and BSc degrees are normally offered with honours; ordinary and unclassified degrees are available to those who struggle to meet the requirements of honours degrees. Evidence from graduates with ordinary degrees, though, has shown that it has been a difficult entry point in the labour market and, therefore, may not offer a greater advantage over a foundation degree.

A useful resource when researching progression to honours level is the annual survey of graduate destinations, What Do Graduates Do?    

AGCAS

Written by Emma Bumpus, AGCAS

Date: 

May 2011

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