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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
  • Next steps
  • Learning and support
  • Employability
  • Events
  • Your course
  • Contact us

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.

You will have a guaranteed place on an undergraduate degree if you’re successful in your foundation year.

With access to teaching, facilities and accommodation, you’ll have the same student experience as any other undergraduate.

Meet your Programme Director

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

Your next steps

Accept your offer

Received all of your offers? You can accept your 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

An example of our chat feature.

Explore Manchester

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

Explore the city

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

We know the last few months have been challenging and uncertain for us all.

As the UK government gradually lifts COVID-19 restrictions and we welcome our staff and students back to campus, find out how our University is keeping everyone as safe as possible.

 

 

Find out more

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.

3D printing visors for the NHS

Meet Computer Science alumni Tom Macpherson-Pope who started on one of our Foundation courses.

Read Tom's blog : 3D printing visors for the NHS with CS alumni, Tom Macpherson-Pope

Tom in the lab 3D printing visors.

VIDEO: Science alumni panel

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

Our Alumni: Graduate Engineer at WMG

Discover how Foundation student Ben Hunt used the University's career service to help secure his position on a graduate scheme.

Read Ben's blog : Our alumni – Ben Hunt, Graduate Engineer at WMG

Ben Hunt.

VIDEO: Engineering alumni panel

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

Events for offer-holders

Parents and carers event

Watch a recording of our recent parents / carers and supporters session for courses within the School of Natural Sciences.

This session was directed at parents/carers and supporters to find out more information and ask questions about your chosen course and the University.

Watch video Watch video

Parents and carers event

Watch a recording of our parents / carers and supporters session for courses within the School of Engineering on 27 January 2022.

This session was directed for parents to find out more information and ask questions about your chosen course and the University.

Watch video Watch a recording of the session

Virtual Open Day talk

Watch the Foundation Year presentation from the last Virtual Open Day.

Your course

Courses within this subject area

Remind yourself how much your course at Manchester has to offer you.

Courses

Follow the relevant link for details about the course you have an offer for:

  • Aerospace Engineering with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Chemical Engineering with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Chemistry with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Civil Engineering with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Computer Science with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Electrical, Electronic & Mechatronic Engineering with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Environmental Science with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Materials Science with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Mathematics with an Integrated Foundation Year
  • Mechanical Engineering with an Integrated Foundation 
  • Physics with an Integrated Foundation Year

Your future courses

Find out more about the subject area related to your Integrated Foundation Year:

  • Aerospace engineering
  • Chemical engineering
  • Chemistry
  • Civil engineering
  • Computer science
  • Earth and planetary science
  • Electrical, electronic and mechatronic engineering
  • Environmental science
  • Materials science
  • Mathematics
  • Mechanical engineering
  • Physics

Contact us

Get in touch

Our admissions staff are here to answer any questions you have.

For general enquiries about the Integrated Foundation Year programmes:

Tel: +44 (0) 161 543 4024 (lines are open between 10am – 4pm).

Email: ug-fy-se@manchester.ac.uk 

For admissions enquiries, please contact the admissions team of the relevant department: https://www.se.manchester.ac.uk/connect/contact/

Social media

Facebook: @scienceandengineeringuom
Instagram: @uomscieng
Twitter: @UoMSciEng
Faculty blog: The Hub

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