The Foundation Year prepares you to study in a variety of business and law programmes, while giving you a strong cross-disciplinary grounding in these subjects. On successfully completing the Foundation year, you are not only equipped for further study in your chosen subject, but have a good interdisciplinary understanding of business and law more generally that will help you when you begin the first year of your degree programme. The Foundation Year also gives you experience of applying what you study to the solution of real-world problems. In this way, it gives you the necessary skills for further academic study, inquiry and problem-solving, and helps you become an independent learner.

Upon successful completion of the Foundation Year in Business and Law you will progress to your three-year degree designed to prepare you for general management. All our business degrees are essentially practical in nature. You will receive relevant knowledge and understanding of organisations, the external environment in which they operate and how they are managed; the inter-relationships among, and the integration of, these areas will form part of your overall student learning experience.

On the Foundation Year all students study five core modules: Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Marketing, Contemporary Issues in Law, Individual Project, Communication and Academic Skills for HE and Personal and Career Development. In addition to this Business students will study Contemporary Issues in Accounting, whilst Law students will study an Introduction to Law module.

These modules will introduce you to key concepts, skills and ideas in the disciplines of Business and Law by exploring key current issues and engaging you in lively debates.

Having gained a grounding in each subject area you will then undertake a supervised ‘Individual Project’ investigating a particular topic within your chosen subject area. This module is designed to prepare you for further study within your chosen subject-specific degree pathway.

The Foundation Year will enable you to attain all the basic transferable skills you need to undertake research, reflect on your learning, and communicate effectively in speech, writing and other formats, giving you the confidence to study in Higher Education. 

Marketing can be studied as a single honours degree, or it can be combined with other Business School subjects such as Advertising, Accounting, Human Resource Management or Business Studies and a variety of subjects from across the University to suit your individual career aspirations.

In your first year of the degree you will take introductory modules that give you a solid grounding in general business, and in the second and third years you will study marketing planning, market research, consumer behaviour and global marketing.

You will also have the opportunity to study digital marketing, including the use of social media and digital technology. All core and optional modules prepare you for a professional career and provide you with the opportunity to gain a broader understanding of the business world.

The Business School is also a Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Centre, delivering degree and postgraduate level qualifications in management and leadership. It is also an Approved Centre for the Association for Project Management (APM).

Each year the Business School organises a student exchange project with Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Venlo, The Netherlands. This fully funded exchange will give a maximum of 15 undergraduate students the opportunity to explore what it is like to study abroad, work on a business project in The Netherlands, experience a different place and culture, and make new friends.

Work experience

The programme provides you with the opportunity to take a work-based learning module in year two and the opportunity for a placement year between years two and three. Past students have undertaken a variety of interesting placements and are often given responsibility very early on in their placement years.To further your interest in the area of marketing, this degree will give you both the practical and the theoretical experience necessary to embark on a career in this exciting and diverse field. You will understand how marketing works, and how it fits within a wider business environment. Applied projects will give you the confidence to put theory into practice and you will be able to explore the interconnected role marketing plays in all organisations.