The Foundation Programme in Science and Engineering at Loughborough University of Technology

Abstract

University Foundation courses in Engineering were run for the first time in the 1988-9 academic year. The Science and the Engineering faculties at Loughborough University of Technology instigated a Foundation Programme in Science and Engineering at the start of the 1991-2 academic year. Of the 100 or so students on the programme four on average go on to continue their studies in physics. This year sees the first two graduates in the physics department to have come via the Foundation route. One studied PE, Sports Science and Physics and the other Engineering Physics. Both of them achieved lower second class honours degrees. There is an extremely heterogeneous intake into the Foundation Programme and a multitude of exit routes, currently up to 30 different science or engineering degrees. These two factors provide interesting challenges to the course planners in terms of both the choice of course content and the teaching styles adopted. The lecturer responsible for the physics input to the programme believes that the use of Resource- Based Learning materials may be a partial solution to the problems faced by students with non-standard entry qualifications. Such materials are being produced by the FLAP (Flexible Learning Approach to Physics) team, of which she has been a member since 1989. The Foundation Programme continues to evolve and is being redesigned to fit the University's plans for semesterization, which will be put into effect from October 1995.