Childhood Development including Foundation Year
This Foundation Year will help you to build your confidence and lay the foundations for you to successfully complete a full degree in Childhood Development.
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UCAS Code
L23F
Start Date
September 2027
Location
Pontypridd
Campus Code
A
UCAS Points
48
UCAS Code
L23F
Start Date
September 2026
Location
Pontypridd
Campus Code
A
UCAS Points
48
Fees
Home students: £9,790*
International students: £17,200*
Course Overview
Build academic confidence and core study skills while developing a strong foundation in childhood development, preparing you to progress onto the full degree and future work with children and families.
Why study this course?
What you'll study
Across the Foundation Year, you’ll build academic confidence, explore childhood and development, develop research skills, and apply your learning through practical projects, preparing you for progression into undergraduate study.
For details of the modules you will study after successful completion of the Foundation Year, please see the main course page.
This module helps you develop academic, personal and professional skills for university study. You’ll reflect on your progress, build confidence, and create an evidence-based portfolio to support your future learning.
Develop core research skills, including data collection, analysis and presenting findings, to help you understand and carry out research in applied contexts.
Explore how childhood has changed over time, examining key thinkers, ideas and policies. You’ll develop research and presentation skills while investigating how societies have understood and shaped children’s lives.
The Impact Challenge is a Foundation Year project module where students work in teams to tackle real-world issues, developing solutions through research, curiosity, teamwork, and responsible problem-solving.
We regularly review our courses to keep pace with changing skills and employer needs. If a review leads to significant changes, we’ll contact you to explain what’s changing for the coming year.
Teaching and Assessment
You will learn through active, real-world learning experiences that encourage curiosity, collaboration and independent thinking. Teaching helps you understand how learning works at university, while building academic confidence, critical thinking and self-reflection.
You’ll work independently and with others through discussions, practical activities and guided reflection, supported by digital tools. Regular feedback helps you recognise progress and plan next steps, supporting wellbeing, resilience and a strong sense of belonging as you prepare for a higher level of study.
You’ll be assessed in different ways, including short tasks, coursework, presentations, and group work. Early assessments are designed to support your learning and help you understand what is expected at university.
Most assessments are coursework-based and help you develop key skills such as research, academic writing, teamwork, and communication. You’ll also reflect on your progress and use university systems and digital tools. Clear, timely feedback will help you understand how to improve and support your next steps.
A key element of the Childhood Development course is the opportunity to gain a short period of hands-on experience working with children and adolescents in a range of settings where available, including schools, child and family welfare charities, and youth justice. You can also apply for clinical experience at our on-campus Early Intervention Clinic and will have the opportunity to undertake short courses and work placements, as well as completing additional qualifications such as Safeguarding Children (Level 1).
We want to help you enhance your skillset to open as may doors as possible for your future career. You can also find a range of options for this through our Psychology Plus scheme, including volunteering, internships and short courses.
Students on our childhood development degree course get hands-on in specialist psychology labs with industry-standard equipment, including EEG (electroencephalogram) and eye-tracking technology. With dedicated study spaces and access to our on-site Behaviour Analysis Clinic, you’ll connect your learning to real-world practice.
Course Leader
Emma Wheeler
Emma Wheeler is the Course Leader for the Foundation Year. Emma has many years of teaching experience, working with students who have been out of education for some time. Classroom environments on the Foundation Year are sensitive, encouraging and responsive to a wide range of needs from our students and help you go on to the degree course with confidence.
For details of the Course Leader on the degree course please visit the course page.
''I was able to feel confident in my ability and skills during work experience placements from the information that I had learned during lectures.''
Isabel, Childhood Development Graduate
Entry Requirements
Contextual offers
We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.
USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.
Additional requirements include:
The University normally requires a minimum 3 GCSEs including Mathematics and English at Grade C/Grade 4 or above, or their equivalent but consideration is given to individual circumstances.
How to applyContextual admissions policyAsk us a question48 UCAS points or above
Typical qualification requirements
A Level:
DD
BTEC:
BTEC Extended Diploma Pass Pass Pass
Access to HE:
Pass Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 48 UCAS Tariff points
T Level:
Pass (D or E)
International applications welcomed:
We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.
International studentsPre-Sessional EnglishEnglish language requirements
International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 4 overall and a minimum of 4 in each component or equivalent.
Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.
If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.
If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.
Fees and Funding
per year
Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).
*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.
Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy. We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
Enhanced DBS *
Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee
Cost: £64.74
DBS Updating service *
Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate
Cost: £16
Placement Costs*
All years of study. Cost is dependent on location
Cost: Up to £500
Making Resources*
Years 2 and 3
Cost: £50
per year
Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).
*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.
Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy. We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.
As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.
Enhanced DBS *
Students will be expected to pay for a DBS or certificate of good behaviour from their home country. The DBS fee includes £49.50 for the enhanced DBS certificate, the Post Office Administration fee and the online administration fee
Cost: £64.74
DBS Updating service *
Subscription required for each year of the course for a yearly fee of £16. Please note the service has to be joined within 30 days of receipt of your enhanced DBS certificate
Cost: £16
Placement Costs*
All years of study. Cost is dependent on location
Cost: Up to £500
Making Resources*
Years 2 and 3
Cost: £50
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How to apply
All applications for full-time undergraduate courses or foundation degrees should be made via UCAS. Take the next step: Apply through UCAS
You can apply to us directly for all part-time undergraduate courses, if you’re seeking advanced entry or you’re an international student. To apply directly, please choose the application form below for your preferred start date and mode of study (full-time or part-time).
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Apply direct
Childhood Development including Foundation Year
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Full-time, 4 years
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September
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Pontypridd
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Apply direct
Childhood Development including Foundation Year
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Full-time, 4 years
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September
-
Pontypridd
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If you already have a relevant qualification or experience related to the course you're applying for, you may be eligible to start at a later stage of the course. For example, students from partner colleges can ‘top up’ their qualifications to a degree by joining us in Year Two or Year Three of a course. This process is known as ‘advanced entry’, you can apply directly to the University for 'advanced entry' using the application forms provided above.
Applicants accepted through advanced entry may study a different combination of modules to those advertised, as they will be joining a course already in progress. You will be contacted and advised about these modules once your application has been processed and an offer made.
International applicants can apply to us directly. If the University has an in-country team in your region, your application will be assigned to them for assistance.
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