Contents
Presenter
Dr Helen Spicer Cain – Senior Lecturer, Department of Language and Communication Sciences
Paper
The paper focuses on students’ views about the programme and how it can be developed for the future. Confidence and belonging were referenced several times in student focus groups.
This paper reports on an appreciative inquiry of a foundation year programme, which was conducted via focus groups with former students of the programme, who were undertaking undergraduate study at City St George’s. Past research has substantiated that the programme is successful in helping many students reach undergraduate study, and that former students go on to attain well in terms of their undergraduate degree marks, keeping pace with students who enter undergraduate courses via UCAS (Spicer-Cain, 2025). However, to further develop the programme, feedback from alumni was felt to be important. An appreciative inquiry was chosen to allow focus on positive aspects of the programme and plans for growth, aligned with the appreciative inquiry ethos of building on what works. Former students referenced many positive aspects of the programme, aligning with key themes of:
- Learning how to learn at university
- Learning skills that went on to be helpful in their undergraduate courses
- Developing a sense of confidence and belonging within the foundation programme
A range of improvements were also suggested, including aspects that could prepare students from the BSc programmes more completely, and aspects that could build a greater sense of community within the cohort. Former students are ideally placed to suggest changes that may increase student motivation and engagement, as well as making sure the programme achieves its aims of preparing students for undergraduate study.
Plans for putting these suggestions in place will be discussed, and results of the focus groups will be situated within the context of other literature on foundation years, including government reports (OfS, 2019). There will also be a reflection on the methodology of the study and how this could be used in other contexts within Higher Education.
The results of the appreciative inquiry will be presented to the audience. The presentation will last approximately 12 minutes. There will be discussion of the appreciative inquiry methodology and what has been learned from using this methodology, as well as the information gained from the former students and discussion of how this has been and will be used to further develop the programme.
For further reading you may be interested to read this recently published paper – Foundations of success: Former foundation year students on a health sciences course show equivalent module marks and degree completion rates to peers from more traditional entry routes
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Open in new tab References
Office for Students (2019). Preparing for degree study: analysis of Access to Higher Education diplomas and integrated foundation year courses. Available at: https://www.officeforstudents.org.uk/media/f3450e04-2d2b-4b33-932f-41140d57c41e/ofs2019_20.pdf. Accessed 23rd August 2024.
Spicer-Cain, H. (in press). Foundations of success: former foundation year students on a health sciences course show equivalent module marks and degree completion rates to peers from more traditional entry routes. Journal of the Foundation Year Network.
