Spotlight on Computing

Term 1 is now well under way and our students are hard at work preparing for their mid term assessments.  Students on the Undergraduate Foundation Programme (UFP) study English along with 3 academic subjects of their choice to best prepare them for the Undergraduate degree that they will progress onto next year at UCLan.

This week our UFP Computing class have been learning about Different Programming Languages.  To help them understand computer programming languages groups of students acted out different parts of a language and presented it to the class. 

To support the theoretical classroom based learning, Computing students also have practical lessons in a University Computer Lab 4 hours per week. 

Computing students are set to progress onto a variety of degree courses next year including BSc (Hons) Computer Games Development, BSc (Hons) Computer Network Technology, BEng (Hons) Robotics and Mechatronics and BEng (Hons) Electronic Engineering.

Computing Tutor Susan Clark said; "My aim in teaching Computing is to encourage each student to work to the best of their ability.  When students work hard, I try to be really kind.  Work can always be improved - there is no such thing as having finished with nothing more to do.  I believe in aiming high but I like the class to laugh and find learning fun.  As long as students study the work and pass their examinations, I don't mind if they think I am slightly crazy."

Keep up the good work class!

A Day Out in the Lake District

After the students' first week in lessons they had the chance to take a trip to one of England's most revered beauty spots with Foundation on Campus.  The Lake District is an area of natural beauty famous for it's lakes, forests and mountains and is only an hours drive north of Preston. 

Students spent the day around Lake Windermere, enjoying the local town, food and views.  They took a boat trip and had the option to visit the Beatrix Potter museum or take a trip to the Lakes Aquarium. 

Take a look at this video clip filmed by Talal Jallaf, one of our aspiring Physiotherapy students;

 

Here's what he had to say about the day; "We stepped off the bus and arrived to a magical place.  Most of us had never experienced anything like this before, such a beautiful place.  The glistening clear blue lake, trees so green spreading beyond the horizon, shiny polished boats and local wildlife.  We stepped on a boat to take us on a voyage around the lake, greeted with a smile and a warm welcome we took our seats and began our journey.  It was just brilliant.  It took us all by surprise to hear that Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh had been on the same boat, we suddenly all felt like royalty.

Our journey home was a disappointing one, we didn't want to leave our new heaven.  Fresh air, fresh food and friendly people.  It was a trip like no other."

A warm welcome to 2012/13, by Centre Head Mary Wade

Welcome to the 2012/13 academic year! 

 

It is so nice to have students in the centre again after our short summer break.  Induction week began on Monday 1^st October and you can find photographs of our students meeting each other, the teachers and receiving talks from the Student’s Union, the Health Centre, the Police and the Fire Service as well as FoundationCampus staff on our Facebook and Flickr page.  It also included our usual trip to Blackpool to have fish and chips and enjoy the Blackpool illuminations – a traditional British institution. 

 

Today is the last day of their first week of study and the students are really starting to settle down.  They will have met their personal tutors for the first time this week.  The personal tutors are a very important part of the student journey through FoundationCampus and lead a programme throughout the year that gives an introduction to study in the UK, helping the students with study strategies, but also gives the students an opportunity to talk about any personal problems and to reflect on living life in another culture. 

 

It’s important to recognise that students on our Foundation programmes are not only here to study but are also experiencing enormous changes outside the classroom, getting used to living away from their family and in a new culture.  Studying on a foundation year gives the students the opportunity to experience these challenges outside the classroom before they start their degree or masters, ensuring they will be able to focus on their study to achieve the best qualification possible.  It also gives them a chance to share their learning with people who are going through the same changes.  Most of our students stay friends throughout their time at university. 

 

Please keep checking our blog to share the 2012/13 year with us.  We’ll have regular postings from staff and students and photographs and videos to keep you up to date.

Best wishes.

 

Mary

Induction week 2012/13

Welcome back to UCLan FoC for what we are sure will be another exciting and successful year.  The year is well and truly under way with 106 new arrivals and another 20 or so still to come.



Students take a campus tour

Induction week was, as always, extremely busy.  Students enrolled on their programmes and chose their options, registered with the police, met with the fire service to discuss safety and were introduced to a lot of the rules and regulations that they will need to know as international students living and studying in England. 

Endrit enjoys traditional fish and chips

Students were treated to a free trip to Blackpool, a town only 45 minutes drive away from Preston, to see the famous Blackpool Illuminations and enjoy traditional English fish and chips.  They also had a chance to go bowling and to take a trip to Manchester's Trafford Centre, the largest shopping centre in the UK.

A great start to 2012/13.

Olympic Torch Relay - Preston 2012

Olympic Torch Relay - Preston 2012, a set on Flickr.

Our photos of when the London 2012 Olympic torch relay came to Preston (June 2012)

OLYMPIC TORCH COMES STRAIGHT THROUGH UCLAN

We all got up at 6am to make sure that we saw the once in a lifetime experience as the Torch Relay for the London Olympics 2012 came to Preston!!
We were very excited and were definitely not disappointed.

We stood outside the Language centre at The University of Central Lancashire where they offer free English classes to students who are currently studying at UCLan.

It took about half an hour of waiting for us to finally hear some noise from the parade with the Olympic Torch.

Once the parade was in full swing we saw the likes of Lloyds TSB giving out free balloons, Coke giving out free bottles of Coke along with music and athletes from the area waving to us!!

Once the Torch had been passed just in front of us outside the University it continued through the rest of the City.

We ran as fast as our legs could carry us to the City Centre to watch the Torch arriving at it's final destination. We stood outside the Harris Museum which was amazing to see with hundreds of people lining up to see the Torch.

The students were really excited and described this as a once in a lifetime experience and I certainly agree.

Please take a look at our photo stream on Flickr which will show you how the day looked!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/uclanfoundationcampus/

Are you thinking about studying the International Diploma?

... but are not sure which degree you would like to progress onto?

Currently we offer five, excellent degree courses which you can progress onto after your first year with us:

BA (Hons) Business and Management - is qualitative in nature and focuses on the human elements within an organisation. See more here.

BA (Hons) Business Administration - is numerical in its focus and develop the skills to use information for decision making in business. See more here.

BA (Hons) International Business - covers the basic of business and management with an additional focus on international issues. See more here.

BA (Hons) International Business Communication - has a focus on improving English communication and then learning the fundamentals of business. See more here.


BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems - this courses mixes the use of information technology to aid business with the fundamentals of business See more here.