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Business

BA (Hons) & Foundation Year

Home Courses Undergraduate Business & Management degree

Summary

Study level

Undergraduate

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Foundation Year Entry Degrees

Full time

4 years

Part time

4 years+

Location

London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Berlin or Online

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Faculty of Business

Course Overview

Are you interested in pursuing a professional career in business and management, but you’re unsure if you qualify for university study? Arden’s BA (Hons) Business with Foundation Year degree is designed to prepare you with the skills and knowledge you need to succeed in any career you want.

Our business foundation year course will enable you to explore a range of business skills, covering the key elements of business management, the principles of marketing, and the ability to make crucial business changes. These areas of expertise are designed to bring out your best qualities as a manager, and are highly sought after by employers.

As with all of our business degree courses, our bachelor’s degree in business with foundation year offers an exciting mix of academic study, business skills development, and face-to-face training. Our business foundation degree course is the ideal pathway if you don’t currently meet our standard entry requirements, or if it’s been a while since you were in formal education and need to brush up your study skills. Once your foundation year is complete, you’ll progress the first year of the full degree course and will be fully settled into life as a university student.

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Professional accreditation

This course is accredited by the Chartered Management Institute, supporting your career and connecting you with likeminded professionals.

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Course details and modules

Introducing you to the most important aspects of business, this course will give you the skills you need to begin your career in business management. After completing the business degree with foundation year, you’ll have gained the confidence to choose which area of industry you want to work in and start to take on real-world challenges in the workplace.

The course gave me the confidence and skills to go for senior jobs that I wouldn’t have previously. I have been promoted several times since.

Martin Scahill

BSc (Hons) Business & Computing (Top-Up)

Modules

You have 4-12 years to complete this course, meaning that you can take up to 3 years to complete each level. However, many of our students complete the course in 4-8 years.

Foundation Year Modules

Numeracy, IT and Data
Research Skills and Using Information
Values, Ethics and Working Collaboratively
Developing Academic Skills
Structure of Business

Year 2

Developing Personal and Management Skills
Understanding the Business Environment
Principles of Marketing
Introduction to Finance
People in Organisations
Management Information Systems

Year 3

Managing Across Cultures
Business Processes
Enterprise and Entrepreneurship
Business Analysis
Managing Knowledge
Managing Change in Organisations

Year 4

Contemporary Management Issues
Strategic Management
Managing Self and Others
International Management
Research Methods and Dissertation

How do we assess you?

The way we assess our students provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate your strengths in a variety of ways. That’s why we choose a range of different methods to keep track of your progress. These include:

Assignments
Case studies
Reports
Business plans
Business idea pitches
Group presentations
Dissertations

Study options

This course is available to study through Arden’s blended learning study mode at our study centres in London Ealing, London Tower Hill, London Holborn, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Berlin, Germany.

The course is also available to students as a fully online programme, which gives you the convenience of being able to study from anywhere in the UK or worldwide.

"I was already in the working world and running two businesses. Not to mention I also have a young family, so the freedom online learning offered, and the cost effectiveness of the course, was a big draw for me."

Adrian Williams

BA Business (Human Resource Management)

Blended learning

How does it work?

When you choose our blended learning study mode, you’ll have eight hours of timetabled classes spread over two days at the Arden study centre of your choice. This is combined with around 25 hours of independent study, which takes place through ilearn, our university campus in the cloud. ilearn contains all the resources you need to study successfully. You’ll also have access to our online library, Perlego, which contains almost half a million books, journals, and industry literature which you can make use of throughout your studies, removing the need to buy expensive course books in order to study successfully.

Blended learning is the best option for students who prefer the structure of regular face to face classes with their tutor and fellow classmates, and is particularly suited to students who live within commuting or driving distance of one of our UK study centres.

If you're a student from the UK who is enrolling on a blended learning course with Arden (based in one of our UK study centres) then you can apply for a Tuition Fee Loan and Maintenance Loan to help pay for your living expenses. You can find more information on our fees and funding page. If you're a student from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland you can find information about obtaining a student loan to cover your costs from your student finance body.

This course is also available to study full-time at our campus in Berlin, Germany, where you’ll have the opportunity to experience life as an international student in the heart of one of Europe’s most dynamic and historic cities.

Please note: study centre classes are temporarily being conducted online in our virtual classroom due to Covid-19 restrictions. Face-to-face classes will resume once the current restrictions are lifted.

Learn more about blended learning

Online learning

How does it work?

Studying this course online gives you the ultimate in convenience. You can enrol with Arden from anywhere in the world and study your degree from the comfort of home, without the requirement to attend classes in a physical location.

Our online students study their degree through ilearn, Arden’s university campus in the cloud. ilearn provides everything you need to study at University. It offers an integrated virtual learning experience, including your virtual classroom, lecture theatre, and online library (which when used along with our supplementary library, Perlego, gives you access to almost half a million books and journals – yours for free while you study with us).

ilearn is also integrated with Zoom, making it easier to chat with your course tutor during your scheduled seminar sessions. You can even integrate our study materials into your Kindle, making it possible to study wherever you have you Kindle handy.

Studying online doesn’t mean studying alone. As well as receiving regular feedback and guidance from your course tutor, you’ll be studying with likeminded students who you can meet with through our Unitu community, and you’ll have access to community message boards to discuss your course and the topics being raised within it. We’ve even set up community boards embedded into each of the course modules so you can have discussions with your tutor and classmates on the topics you’re currently learning.

Online learning students resident in the UK can apply for a Tuition Fee loan to pay for their course. If you cannot attend your course in person because of a disability, you may also be entitled to a Maintenance Loan to cover living expenses. Please find more information on our fees and funding page. If you're a student from Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland you can find information about obtaining a student loan to cover your costs from your student finance body.

Learn more about online learning

Entry requirements

At Arden University we consider applications on a case by case basis. If you have significant work experience, have qualifications you have gained elsewhere, or a degree or qualification that isn't a clear pathway to this degree - we are more than happy to discuss your application.

Find out more

Eligibility

To be able to study this course, we need to see that you have:

Passes at grade C (grade 4) or above in three subjects at GCSE level OR 45 credits at Level 2 or equivalent – if your qualifications are older than 3 years we would also ask to see a professional CV.
Applicants may be considered based on a minimum of 12 months of professional work experience evidenced with a CV and Reference if they do not meet the qualification requirements.
We also offer this course as a standard bachelor’s degree without foundation year. To view the course details, please click here.

Candidates are required to submit a personal statement (of between 350-550 words) or attend an interview demonstrating an ability to study for the programme. This statement should include:

Your motivation for undertaking the programme
Why you’ve chosen your particular course
Any long-term goals or career aspirations

English Proficiency

IELTS 6.0 (no less than 5.5 in any element); or TOEFL iBT 80; or equivalent

We also offer an internal English test for applicants. More information on this can be found here.

Before you start studying

Whilst you can read your study materials on your smart phone or tablet, to make the most of your learning experience, you will need access to a laptop or computer (we recommend one running the latest version of Windows), and a good stable internet connection.

Course fees and funding

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Use the dropdown above to find course fees and funding information for your country. If you can’t find information for your country in the dropdown, visit our International support page.

Meet the faculty

Here at Arden University we strive to provide a fresh and unique approach to your business and management education. With ideas and experiences taken from employers and thought leaders across the world, we give you the opportunity to put proven business skills and techniques into practice during your studies. I look forward to welcoming you to the Arden University family.

Dilshad Sheikh

Dean of the Faculty of Business

Career prospects

We don’t expect students at an undergraduate level to have a career path in mind when they enrol on their first degree with us. Some do, some don’t – and that’s okay. So don’t worry if you’re still unsure about what the future holds. We focus on preparing you with a range of transferable skills that will allow you to understand how organisations work across many industries, so you can eventually decide which career path and industry suits you the best.

Related Courses

What can a business foundation degree do for me?

So, what can a business degree with foundation year do for you? In short, everything! By covering a breadth of topics, you’ll have your pick as to which career path to choose upon graduating. Whilst studying you’ll:

Gain an in-depth understanding of all business functions
Develop an analytical eye for important detail and sharp critical thinking abilities
Become an expert problem solver and a confident communicator in business scenarios
Understand all levels of organisational structure and how to evaluate the positives and negatives of these with real-life case studies
Begin to form a clearer idea of which aspects of business you enjoy learning about the most, and develop ideas about where your career path might lie

What can I do after Arden University?

As mentioned above, you can do almost anything! Business foundation degrees open up a world of opportunities across all aspects of the business sector. Here are some of the professions our previous graduates have gone on to explore:

Business Manager
Human Resources Manager
Marketing Executive
Operations Manager
Retail Manager
Business Analyst

Industry skills

Chartered Management Institute (CMI)

The Chartered Management Institute (CMI) promotes excellence in UK management and leadership. The institute aims to boost career development across the management sector and connect you with likeminded professionals across diverse sectors.

As the CMI possesses a Royal Charter, they are the only organisation in the UK that can award Chartered Manager status to their members – the gold standard in management. They are also active in business policy making across the globe, and ensure that their more than 140,000 members are represented in policy decision making.

As an Arden student, you’ll have free CMI Membership throughout your studies, giving you access to a range of additional resources including a mentoring service and invitations to networking events both online and offline.

Business Graduates Association (BGA)

Arden University’s Faculty of Business is an esteemed member institution of the Business Graduates Association (BGA), an international quality assurance body of world-leading education providers who share a commitment for responsible management practices and lifelong learning. Membership with the BGA means that Arden University will support its students’ professional growth, allowing them to contribute to an international network in which ‘Leaders Never Stop Learning’.