BSc (Hons)

Marketing including Foundation Year

The Marketing Foundation Year introduces you to key business and marketing concepts while developing essential academic and professional skills. Through practical learning and reflection, you’ll gain confidence and prepare to progress into degree-level study.

How to apply Apply Through UCAS Book an Open Day Chat to Us

Key Course Details

  • UCAS Code

    N53F

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £5,760*

  • International students

    £16,800*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.
Make an Enquiry

You’ll learn through interactive, applied tasks, collaborative projects and independent study, building skills in communication, research, problem-solving and digital fluency. Reflective activities help you connect theory to real-world marketing contexts, creating a strong foundation for success in your Marketing degree and future career. 

Designed for

Students who do not currently meet the admissions criteria for direct entry onto a degree course or students returning to education who wish to build confidence, and the academic skills needed to progress onto their chosen degree program.

Career paths

  • Marketing communications specialist (in-house and agency)
  • Digital marketer
  • Account manager 
  • Marketing executive
  • Content creator
  • Copywriter
  • Event manager
  • Brand manager
  • Sales and retailing management
  • Market researcher
  • Social media manager
  • Public relations officer
  • Running your own business

Skills taught

  • Critical thinking
  • Evaluation skills
  • IT skills
  • Independent learning
  • Communication skills

Accreditations and memberships

  • Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
  • Institute of Data and Marketing (IDM)
  • Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA)

We make a difference in practice, not just on paper. Our courses are designed by people who offer jobs - and taught by people who have real work experience.

Undergraduate marketing student Chloe Buckley student smiles widely while using their laptop and sat at a desk in the Postgraduate Centre at USW Treforest
Three students studying together. Two are looking at a book and the other is using a laptop.
A student sat at a table, they are looking up and away from the camera.

Course Highlights

Gain key skills

Develop a range of skills and qualities that will enrich your learning in year one and beyond.

Taught by experts

Students are taught by academics with relevant industry experience who are supportive and dedicated to helping them succeed.

Top in Wales

Business Management at USW is top for Teaching Quality in Wales (Guardian University Guide 2025).

Focused on your success

Supportive teaching to help you succeed in your foundation year and beyond.

Module Overview

This Marketing Foundation Year builds confidence, academic skills and business awareness through practical learning, reflection and collaboration, preparing you to progress into degree study with resilience, curiosity and a strong sense of belonging. 

Starting your University Journey  
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.  

Business in Action  
An introduction to how businesses work, covering key areas like marketing, finance and people. You’ll apply ideas to real scenarios while building confidence, teamwork, communication and study skills. 

Institutional Power Dynamics 
Explore how people think, feel and act at work. You’ll learn about teamwork, leadership and motivation, apply ideas to real challenges, and build academic and professional skills.

The Impact Challenge: Shaping Real World Solutions
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.

For details of the modules you will study after successful completion of the Foundation Year, please see the main course page.

Course highlights

How you’ll learn

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. 

How you'll be assessed

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. 

Placements and work experience

Our Marketing degree prioritises real-world experience and industry connections. After progressing from the foundation year, you'll complete a 10-week work placement in Year 2 of the degree with top regional and national employers.

You’ll reap the rewards of the strong practitioner connections that the South Wales Business School has built over the last ten years. This includes guest lectures led by practitioners, field trips, career advancement activities, observational and hands-on research, internships, and assessments based on real-world scenarios. Previous placements have included London brand agencies, the NHS, GoCompare, charities and housing associations.

Facilities

Discover a world of opportunities at our Treforest campus, located in the scenic South Wales Valleys. It’s a vibrant student hub with a student union, sports centre, restaurants, shops, and much more.

Accreditations and memberships

Accredited by
Accredited by
Memberships

Student Stories

Marketing student Chloe Buckley sat at a desk with a laptop smiling off camera
Discovering my passion for Marketing Management

Chloe Buckley

Marketing student

Student Chidiebere Ejiogu sits at a table in Treforest campus's Postgraduate Centre
Advancing my Marketing career with International Accreditation

Christopher Chidiebere Ejiogu

Marketing student

A student sat at a table, they are looking up and away from the camera.
Blending creativity and strategy through Marketing

Holly-Rose Jenkins

Marketing student

Marketing student, Sam, sits in front of colourful artwork whilst smiling at the camera
Marketing at USW helped launch my career with practical experience

Sam Dunlop

Marketing student

Marketing student, Cole, sits in front of colourful artwork whilst smiling at the camera
Studying Marketing at USW gave me career goals, communication skills and real-world experience

Cole Vyas

Marketing student

advertising-students-sven-krister-marnot
Blending business and creativity in Advertising

Sven Krister-Marnot

Advertising student

advertising-students-tina-hjertas
A partnership between universities brought me to USW

Tina Hjertas

Advertising student

Advertising student, Ivan, sat at a desk with a laptop
Working on live briefs and finding my creative path

Ivan Jenkins-Jones

Advertising student

profile shot against a modern indoor background of a smiling advertising student on the Cardiff campus, wearing a black beanie hat and red top
Getting creative in Cardiff – what to expect from an Advertising degree at USW

Jenna Drennan

Advertising student

Marketing student Holly Rose Jenkins smiles at the camera in front of a red backdrop

  • Business, Management and Marketing is top 5 in UK and top in Wales for Teaching Quality (The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025). 

Top in Wales

Marketing at USW is top in Wales for academic support, student voice, assessment and feedback. 

(National Student Survey 2024)

  • Business, Management and Marketing is top 5 in UK and top in Wales for Teaching Quality (The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide 2025). 

Career and Employability

Graduate Careers

Our marketing degree arms you with real-world experience, so you'll graduate knowing how to demonstrate your value to potential employers. You’ll get to showcase your standout skills on your CV, giving you an advantage in the job market. Career options are extremely varied and include marketing communications (in-house or agency), market research, digital marketing, social media, public relations, product design, event management, and even entrepreneurship if you choose to start your own business. Previous graduates have successfully joined the BMW Graduate Scheme. 

Industry Partners

Our BA (Hons) Marketing degree is the only marketing degree in the UK to be recognised by three industry-leading professional bodies: the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), and the Institute of Data and Marketing.

By studying our full undergraduate degree in Marketing, you can join the CIM's Accredited Degree programme and work towards earning a Level 4 Certificate in Professional Marketing. You can also choose to pursue other professional qualifications during your studies.

Career Support

You’ll have access to advice from our careers and employability service throughout your studies and when you graduate. This includes one-to-one appointments with faculty-based career advisers either in person or virtually through video call or email. We also have online resources to help explore career options and ensure you present yourself well to employers. These include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, an interview simulator, and application help. We also have over 2,000 registered employers targeting business graduates, so we’ll sign you up to receive weekly email alerts for jobs that match your interests too.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

UCAS points: 48 (or above)

Typical qualification requirements:

  • A Level: DD
  • BTEC: BTEC Extended Diploma Pass Pass Pass or BTEC Diploma Pass Pass
  • Access to HE: Pass the Access to HE Diploma and obtain a minimum of 48 UCAS tariff points.

Additional requirements include:

The University normally requires a minimum 3 GCSEs including Mathematics and English at Grade C or above, or their equivalent but consideration is given to individual circumstances.

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.

English 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.

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.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

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).

Foundation Year Tuition Fee

Where applicable, the Tuition Fee for international students is as listed in the fees section above

Further Information

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.

Fees and Funding

Additional Costs

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 stationery, printing, or equipment during your foundation year.  For costs after you progress to year 1 of your degree programme, please see the list below.

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Life at USW

Halls are a big part of your student experience and there’s accommodation at all three of our locations. If you don’t want to live near the campus, there are great transport links to keep you connected.

A student sat smiling and talking to friends off camera in Treforest Student's Union
Student Life
The University's Ty Crawshays building at Treforest, Pontypridd.
Pontypridd Campus, Treforest
A double room at our Pontypridd accommodation featuring a large window.
Accommodation

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).

Advanced entry

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 admissions

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.
 

Next Steps

How to apply
Apply Through UCAS
Book an Open Day
Chat to Us