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    • Audiology
    • BA Politics, Philosophy and Economics
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    • Business accounting
    • Chemical engineering
    • Chemistry
    • Chinese
    • Civil engineering
    • Classics, ancient history, archaeology and Egyptology
    • Computer science
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This is your future

Science and Engineering Foundation

Get ready to join a global community that helps brilliant thinkers turn inspiration into reality, encouraging innovation, experimentation and creative thinking.

  • Introduction
  • Discover more
  • Learning and support
  • Employability
  • Next steps
  • Further information

A message to our offer-holders

Congratulations on becoming an offer-holder in our Integrated Foundation Year at The University of Manchester.

By choosing the Integrated Foundation Year at Manchester, you have taken the first steps in becoming fully prepared for degree-level study in engineering or the natural sciences at The University of Manchester.

The Integrated Foundation Year is specifically designed to prepare you for the first year on your chosen degree.

Meet your Programme Director

Dr Jonathan Sly welcomes offer-holders to the Faculty of Science and Engineering

Discover more

Your future

You'll have a guaranteed first-year place if you meet the specified criteria for your chosen department.

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Student experience

From teaching, facilities and accommodation, you'll have the same student experience as any other undergraduate.

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Graduate employment

We're the most targeted university by the nation's top graduate employers (The Graduate Market in 2023).

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Rich heritage

Our university has a rich academic history, with 25 Nobel laureates among our current and former staff and students.

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Learning and support

Your learning experience

Academic skills

Learn more about academic skills units in the Foundation Year and why they are important to your learning.

George's foundation year

What is it actually like studying a Foundation Year? Listen to George’s experience in this video.

 

Student support

Support on your course

We're here for you, providing support every step of the way. From your own personal academic adviser, student communities and ways to look after your health and wellbeing.

Hear from Dr Sly, Head of Foundation Studies and Joanne Taylor, our Student Support Officer about the variety of student support offered when studying the Integrated Foundation Year. 

Learn more about support from the University.

Your health, wellbeing and safety

At Manchester, we offer all our students support and encouragement to stay happy and healthy at university.

Find out more

Scholarship Ceremony

Hear from previous recipients of our scholarships at last years Scholarship Ceremony.

Click here to learn more about our scholarships.

Get ready to study

Preparing for your course

Getting ready to study at university is exciting but it can also be challenging.

To help you prepare and better understand what will be expected from you, we've outlined some useful things to know.

Our advice for anyone preparing to join us in September is to make sure you are confident in the mathematics, physics and (where applicable) chemistry that you have studied up to this point.

You can do this by looking at your existing notes or textbooks or by using your preferred online resources and videos.

The list below highlights the key 'prerequisite' knowledge that we expect all students to have when they join the Foundation Year:

  • The meanings of basic terms such as; atoms, molecules, electrons, fluid, gas, vacuum etc.
  • The meaning of quantities such as; speed, velocity, mass, force, pressure, volume, power, cross-sectional area, surface area, density (and the units used to measure them).
  • Basic arithmetic, including fractions, indices and solving linear equations with one variable.
  • Simple trigonometry, including trig functions and inverse functions and an understanding of which quadrants angles may lie in.
  • How to interpret verbal information in mathematical form e.g. ‘Object A has mass ma which is 25% larger than the mass mb of object B; find a formula for mb in terms of ma.
  • Work with simple functions, including being able to identify the domain and range.
  • How to draw and interpret graphs of physical data and basic mathematical functions e.g. straight line, parabola, trig. and exponential functions.
  • Formulae for the surface area and volume of simple shapes (cubes, cylinders, spheres and other shapes based on these - such as hemispheres etc.).
  • Work with polynomials, including expanding brackets, factorising expressions and completing the square.

If you have studied Maths beyond GCSE, or if they were included in the curriculum of your previous maths qualifications, we would also expect a student to be able to:

  • Work with logarithms and with logarithmic and exponential functions.
  • Carry out simple differentiation and integration.

Here are some suggestions for online resources that you might find interesting. Resources range in difficulty, but don’t be deterred - many go well above what we would expect from a new Foundation Year student.

Physics Girl

The Physics Girl YouTube channel creates content with a strong practical component, including home experiments, while also explaining the theory, in a very lively way.

  • Physics Girl website
PBS Space Time

PBS Space Time includes quite advanced content, but is entertaining and makes use of sophisticated animations, which help explain the concepts. The emphasis is on theoretical physics.

  • PBS Space Time website
Steve Mould

Steve Mould’s YouTube videos on various science topics, presented in an informal way.

  • Steve Mould’s YouTube
3blue1brown

3blue1brown has an emphasis on maths; often getting quite advanced, but presented with very effective animations.

  • 3blue1brown website
Standup Maths

Entertaining videos with a maths theme.

  • Standup Maths website

Careers and employability

Supporting your future

Our popular integrated foundation route has produced outstanding graduates across all of our science and engineering courses. Employers will recognise your determination to succeed, adaptability, analytical skills and independent thought.

You can also benefit from our award-winning Careers Service, which will support your first steps towards your dream job and a career for life.

Careers service website

Students studying data on a computer screen.

My journey so far

Louisa Mason talks about her Integrated Foundation Year, the work she’s been doing at Manchester and lunch with the Lovell Telescope.

Read more

Lovell telescope

VIDEO: Science alumni panel

Watch the recent science alumni panel where our alumni talk about their time studying at university and their careers since.

A great transition

Ahmed Omara found his Electrical, Electronic and Mechatronic Engineering with an Integrated Foundation Year course to be a great transition from A Level to university study.

Read more

Lovell telescope

VIDEO: Engineering alumni panel

Watch the recent Engineering alumni panel where our alumni talk about their time studying at university and their careers since.

Your next steps

Accept your offer

Received all of your offers? You can accept your offer of a place at university now via UCAS Hub.

Accept your offer

Your questions answered

We're supporting you through the application process by answering your frequently asked questions.

Find out more about undergraduate applications

Chat to a student

Discover what it's like to study at Manchester by talking to a current student online.

Chat to a student

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Explore Manchester

A brilliant campus, at the heart of the UK's most liveable city. 

Explore the city

Further information

Courses

Courses in this subject area can be found on our course finder. 

See courses

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Contact

Contact our admissions staff if you have any further questions. 

Get in touch

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Blog

News and stories from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering. 

Read more

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