Built Environment Foundation

Foundation course

UCAS code: K111

Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026

Full time: 1 year

Part time: 2 years

Location: Headington

School(s): School of the Built Environment

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Overview

Our Built Environment Foundation prepares you to study at degree level. As well as make plans for your future professional education and career.

You will develop your understanding and problem-solving and gain other key skills in the design and development of cities. To help develop your practical skills our course combines:

  • theory and contextual case studies
  • field trips
  • live projects.

On completing your course, you can progress to one of the following degree courses here at Oxford Brookes;

If you want to progress to Architecture or Interior Architecture you must have an acceptable portfolio of artistic work.

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Built Environment Foundation

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Freedom to explore
    Get to know your preferences and explore the differences between various built environment disciplines before choosing which subject to study for your degree.
  • Interesting assessment
    You’ll be assessed through coursework such as individual and group presentations, critical commentaries and reflective journals, or exams. All programmes use live projects.
  • A breadth of expertise
    Benefit from being taught by a wide range of expert academics. With tutors spanning the range of built environment disciplines, your studies will be diverse and research-rich
  • Shape your own research
    Research the area of your programme you’re most passionate about. Create, manage and complete your own project while getting 1-to-1 guidance from an academic supervisor.
  • Open progression
    We uniquely focus on opening avenues for you by preparing you for progression on to any of our built environment degrees (see progression rules in further study). 
  • Learn a language

    Our university-wide language programme is available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.

  • Study abroad

    You may be able to go on a European or international study exchange while you are at Brookes. Most exchanges take place in the second year. Although we will help as much as we can with your plans, ultimately you are responsible for organising and funding this study abroad.

Course details

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Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place face to face and you can expect around 9 hours of contact time per week. In addition to this, you should also anticipate a workload of 1,200 hours per year. Teaching usually takes place Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 6.00pm.

Contact hours involve activities such as lectures, seminars, practicals, assessments, and academic advising sessions. These hours differ by year of study and typically increase significantly during placements or other types of work-based learning.

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Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Careers

Foundation Built Environment is principally intended as a route to further study at degree level - and exists to develop and enhance academic skills. It will allow you to choose the most suitable area of degree specialism within the School, and make plans for the subsequent professional education that ensues. Various teaching and learning methods are employed - lectures, seminars, tutorials, and workshops - which will test written expression, presentation skills, independent learning, and working in groups. Underpinning this, students will access information from various sources and work to deadlines.

Successful completion of the Foundation course can lead you on to one of the following degree courses at Oxford Brookes. All of the courses will have specific progression rules which will be highlighted to you during your induction programme. We will also provide you with advice and guidance on how you can meet the progression rules.

Entry requirements

Wherever possible we make our conditional offers using the UCAS Tariff. The combination of A-level grades listed here would be just one way of achieving the UCAS Tariff points for this course.

Standard offer

UCAS Tariff Points: 48

A Level: DD

IB Points: 24

BTEC: PPP or MP

Further offer details

We welcome applications from candidates with alternative qualifications, and from mature students.

International qualifications and equivalences

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
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Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£9,250

Home (UK) part time
£1,155 per single module

International full time
£15,950

2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£5,760

Home (UK) part time
£720 per single module

International full time
£16,750

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Please note, tuition fees for Home students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Oxford Brookes University intends to maintain its fees for new and returning Home students at the maximum permitted level.

For further information please see our 2025-26 tuition fees FAQs.

Tuition fees for International students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.