A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.

Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.

With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.

The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.

This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.

Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?

• Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
• Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
• Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
• Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees

The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.

During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.

Units

• Analysing Performance (PER022-1) Compulsory
• Creating Contemporary Performance (PER026-1) Compulsory
• The Actor In Performance (PER002-1) Compulsory
• Understanding Performance (PER021-1) Compulsory
• Understanding The Performance Sector (PER023-1) Compulsory
• Working In The Performance Sector (PER020-1) Compulsory
• Acting In Context (PER029-2) Compulsory
• Acting Laboratory (PER021-2) Compulsory
• Teaching And Community Practice (PER025-2) Compulsory
• Musical Theatre (PER012-2) Optional
• Questioning Performance (PER024-2) Optional
• Acting In New Repertory (PER023-3) Compulsory
• Dissertation (PER028-3) Compulsory
• Practice As Research (PER029-3) Compulsory
• Professional Practice In Performing Arts (PER010-3) Compulsory
• Small Scale Production (PER030-3) Compulsory

A range of formative and summative assessments are used on the course. Formative assessments are used in some units to help you to prepare for summative assessments later on in the unit, and to monitor your progress. Summative assessments evaluate your learning on specific areas of the curriculum such as professional practice, creative practice, vocal and physical movement, subject knowledge, and research, and together, test your overall development as an imaginative, creative, thinking actor. You will be assessed on your development in the following broad categories: - Acting skills and Techniques - Performance (live or mediated) - Practical (group and individual) - Written Assessment (critical evaluations, research reports) - Presentations (oral or mediated, group or individual) - Seminar - Self-Assessment - Reflective Notebook/E-Journal - Portfolio - Viva Showcase event Acting skills and Techniques test development and deployment of vocal, physical and movement skills in well-defined performance situations (in solo or group work) that differ across the years, the emphasis being the level of your individual development and attainment across published sets of skills. A Performance could be of a staged dramatic text or devised piece, or a directed piece of work in which you are assessed as a performer but you will need to demonstrate the research activities undertaken as part of your preparation, rehearsal and production activities. Practical / performance assessments examine the extents to which you have developed techniques and performance skills across a range of theatre styles and conventions. Practical / performance assessments include performing in and staging script-based materials or your own devised pieces. These assessments evaluate your acting skills in workshop, solo and ensemble settings, and your professional and collaborative practices and engagement in practice-led research in the fields of performance practice and study. A Written Assessment may be a formal essay, or it may be a piece of professional writing such as a project proposal, an evaluative report or a CV. In general, written essays require you to demonstrate and to articulate your understanding of theory in a formal essay or in a format that requires you to explore theory in relation to practice. Written assessments, including portfolios, reflective Notebooks and journals / E-journals assess your analytical, written communication and reflective skills. These test your understanding and communication of published theory and theory-practice relationship our ability to synthesise ideas, construct, structure and maintain an argument, the clarity and logic of your writing and adherence to academic conventions. Presentation and seminar assessments include performance presentations, academic seminar papers, project proposals, and poster presentations. These assess your verbal communication ad ability to disseminate work in a live context and your level of attainment in the extent to which you locate and situate your own research and practice within acting, theatre and performance industry and academia. Seminar / Viva- these oral submissions will test your knowledge of specific subject(s), the quality of research that informs your learning and arguments, ability to synthesise your personal ideas/thoughts and opinions from other sources, to articulate as well as present arguments and opinions in which your authorial voice is defined and clear. Self-assessment requires you to evaluate your own work against agreed assessment criteria. This allows you to reflect upon your own practice, with tutors, and assess areas of strength and weakness in your work. You will be offered appropriate professional support to improve any weaknesses identified in areas of your work that require strengthening. You will be expected to upload a self-assessment or feedback sheet as part of some assessment processes. Showcase is the major practical project in the final year. You will be assessed on the complexity and sophistication of your interpretation, on how well defined the content of your work is, a developed performance language and process, evidence of research and subject knowledge, the quality of presentation and the extent to which these reflect standards in professional creative industry, as determined by internal/guest practitioner(s). You will receive detailed feedback on all your work, both written and practical. In all cases, this will be provided online via the virtual learning site (TURNITIN). You should read feedback carefully and, if necessary, discuss further with the tutor who has written it. It is your responsibility to follow up on any recommendations within the feedback although you can always seek advice from the marking tutor. In some instances where the assessment has included a period of practical preparation you will be given detailed verbal feedback on your contribution to the process, this may part of a viva assessment. The assessments on the course focus on acting, creative, professional and academic skills and the subject knowledge you develop and require in order to function as a creative actor with the right skills to operate in many other areas of the creative industries. The professional qualities, ethos and work methods which accompany this training are articulated and embedded in the assessment criteria. The emphasis placed upon your professional identity takes into account, the skills, processes and knowledge required for success in your chosen field of employment.