Foundation in Humanities

Foundation course

UCAS code: L111

Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026

Full time: 1 year

Part time: 2 years

Location: Headington, Harcourt Hill

School(s): School of Law and Social Sciences, School of Education, Humanities and Languages

Find a course

Overview

Keen to study a humanities subject but not sure about your options? Join our 1-year course to explore and get the skills you need to continue to a degree.

Learning how to research, evaluate and communicate is a key part of your studies. How does literacy influence cultures? Are nations created by law and governance, or habits and customs? What can philosophies and religions teach us about being human? These are some of the big questions you’ll explore.

You’ll study 8 modules, including compulsory modules such as Nation and Identity, and optional modules you can choose from, including Global Issues and Eastern Religious Philosophies. You’ll learn from leading academics and discover the most recent developments in areas from history to literature.

You’ll learn through lectures, tutorials, workshops, and independent study – with no exams. Academic staff teach across the humanities, meaning you’ll benefit from a range of research-rich knowledge and you can expect a sense of community, dedicated support, and detailed feedback on your work throughout the year.

Order a Prospectus Ask a question Attend an open day or webinar

Group discussion

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Freedom to explore
    Get to know your preferences and explore the differences between various humanities subjects before choosing which subject to study for your degree.
  • Say goodbye to exams
    Don’t get on with exams? No problem. You’ll be assessed through coursework such as individual and group presentations, critical commentaries and reflective journals. 
  • Tailor your modules
    Pick modules that interest you and study alongside undergraduates. Starting to have more of an interest in history, criminology, or social sciences? The choice is yours!
  • A breadth of expertise
    Benefit from being taught by a wide range of expert academics. With tutors spanning the range of humanities subjects, your studies will be diverse and research-rich.
  • Shape your own research
    Research the area of humanities you’re most passionate about. Create, manage and complete your own project while getting 1-to-1 guidance from an academic supervisor. 
  • 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.

Course details

slide 1 of 3

Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place face to face and you can expect around 10 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.

slide 1 of 2

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

The Foundation in Humanities course opens up further courses for you and prepares you for degree-level study.

After successfully completing the course, you’ll be guaranteed a place on one of our 3-year undergraduate degree courses in humanities or social sciences. You could choose a subject like criminology, philosophy, international relations, or history.

You’ll build skills that are directly relevant to university-level study, like critical thinking, independent study, research management and communication. And you’ll have access to our careers services, co-curricular activities, and peer mentoring schemes to boost your skills and awareness further. A future in a humanities-based career is waiting. 

Further Study

Listed below are the range of programmes you may be able to progress onto.  We review which programmes are running on a yearly basis.

You’ll be able to progress directly to the courses above, if running, as well as many Joint Honours courses in a range of these subject areas at Oxford Brookes without further application. You’ll be advised and assisted in this process by your Academic Advisor and/or your Student Support Coordinator.

*All applicants will be screened for fitness to practise and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be made.

The courses below are not eligible for automatic progression from Foundation in Humanities. Please visit the relevant course pages to view their entry requirements: 

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

Applications are welcomed from candidates with alternative qualifications, and from mature students.

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
slide 1 of 2

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.