BSc (Hons) Real Estate including Foundation Year

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UCAS Code

K45F

Start Date

September 2027

Location

Pontypridd

Campus Code

UCAS Points

UCAS Code

K45F

Start Date

September 2026

Location

Pontypridd

Campus Code

UCAS Points

Fees

Home students: £9,790*
International students: £17,200*

Course Overview

The Foundation Year in Real Estate forms part of an integrated four-year degree programme, and is designed for students who do not currently meet the admissions criteria for direct entry onto a degree course in subjects including BSc (Hons) Real Estate.

The Real Estate degree at the University of South Wales is ideally suited for individuals aspiring to develop a career in the field. Options are open, with graduates having the choice of a variety of roles across the public sector in health, education, and housing, and in the private sector in consultancies and commercial real estate firms.

Accreditations

Accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

Why study this course?

Focus on Employability

We engage Industry as a key stakeholder in developing our course material, inviting them in to deliver industry relevant guest lectures.

Visit Industry

You will get chance to engage with industry by visiting local companies, allowing you to see how everything you have learned in the classroom plays out in the workplace environment.

Desirable Skills Which Address Industry Shortages

You will develop skills in communication, problem solving, IT digital skills, and collaboration.

Professionally Accredited

The Real Estate course is accredited by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

What you'll study

In your Foundation Year, you’ll explore real-world challenges, build practical, academic, and teamwork skills, and develop curiosity, confidence, and problem-solving abilities to prepare for future study and impact.

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.

Explore real-world engineering challenges as you develop your theoretical knowledge, including core mathematical and scientific principles. Learn key skills through tutorials and seminars before applying them in immersive laboratories and workshops.

Step into the built environment and explore roles from surveying to construction management. You’ll discover how sustainability and smart tech shape decisions, while building the skills and confidence for your degree.

You’ll work in teams with other Foundation Year students to tackle real-world challenges, developing solutions through research, curiosity, collaboration, and responsible problem-solving while building skills that will support your future studies.

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.

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

Teaching and Assessment

You’ll learn by doing, through real-world activities that help you understand how learning works at university. You’ll be encouraged to ask questions, explore new ideas and work with others, as well as independently.

Teaching builds confidence, critical thinking and reflection, supported by digital tools. Regular feedback helps you track progress, plan next steps and build resilience and a strong sense of belonging as you prepare for higher-level 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.

Participate in site visits and work placements to hone your skills and enhance your knowledge. Site visits will show you construction in action and help you begin to build a list of industry contracts. Gain real-world experience by undertaking a 70-hour summer placement, an internship or civic project through our Applied Professional Experience module.

Alternatively, you can complete a sandwich year placement between your second and third year, where you’ll work on building sites, gathering relevant experience and making valuable connections. A dedicated careers placement officer is on hand to help you find a sandwich year placement and work experience during the holidays.

Delivery of this course takes place on our Treforest Campus where our students have access to a dedicated Built Environment Project Room in addition to our teaching rooms, transformative learning spaces and dedicated computer labs with the latest software. We have also a variety of digital technologies such as VR equipment and drones available to support students learning.

From September 2026, our Computing, Engineering, Technology and Built Environment courses will move into their brand-new home: the Calon building.

This £60m investment will feature more than 40 new innovative teaching, learning and research spaces, including electronics and hydraulics labs, a flight simulator, a robotics lab, clean and industrial research spaces, collaborative teaching spaces, as well as virtual reality capability, and a range of exhibition spaces.

Calon will give you access to the technology, facilities and opportunities needed to shape the future.

Course Leader

Thomas Lambourne

Meet Dr Thomas Lambourne, Senior Lecturer in Urban Development and Course Leader for BSc (Hons) Real Estate. With a background in human geography, his academic expertise centres on housing, urban development, and citizen participation. His teaching includes urban planning, housing and consultation, and he also leads our undergraduate dissertations. His research explores tenant participation, working to bring contemporary urban issues into the classroom, helping students connect theory with practice. For further information about the course, contact Tom directly via email.

Career Prospects

Graduates would have the choice of a variety of roles across the public sector in health, education, and housing, and in the private sector in consultancies and commercial real estate firms.

Your future career

You’ll prepare for careers across surveying, valuation, asset management and property development, with opportunities to work on commercial, residential and public sector projects in a fast-moving industry.

Real estate surveyor
General practice surveyor
Property manager
Valuation surveyor
Asset manager

98% of graduates are in employment and/or further study 15 months after graduation.

Graduate Outcomes Survey 2021/22

Salary Expectations

A Real Estate degree can open opportunities across Built Environment and the wider sector. Built Environment careers offer strong earning potential:

Median wage
UK: £41.9k per annum
Wales: £38.2k per annum

Total jobs in 2025
UK: 1.09m
Wales: 38,215

Source: Lightcast Labour Market Data 2026

Industry partners

We’ve worked with various organisations to shape our degree. We stay connected with companies that offer placements and work experience, helping us to stay up to date with changing job trends and skills. Industry partners we work with include:

The NHS
The Valuation Office Agency
Cooke and Arkwright
Jones Lang LaSalle
Local authorities and housing associations

Get a head-start on your chartered status and attract a higher salary, with a RICS accreditation.

Learn more about RICS accreditation

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.

How to apply Contextual admissions policy Ask us a question

48 UCAS points or above

Typical qualification requirements

A Level:
DD

BTEC:
BTEC Extended Diploma Pass Pass Pass or BTEC Diploma Pass Pass

Access to HE:
Pass Access to HE Diploma with a minimum of 48 UCAS Tariff points

T Level:
P (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 students Pre-Sessional English

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.

Fees and Funding

UK Full-Time Fee £ 9,790

per year

Fees and funding Scholarships and bursaries Cost of living support

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.

International Full-Time Fee £ 17,200

per year

Fees and funding Scholarships and bursaries Cost of living support

98%

of USW Built Environment and Civil Engineering graduates are in employment and/or further study 15 months after graduation.

Graduate Outcomes Survey 2021/22

Ranked in the Top 50 UK universities in the Guardian University Guide 2026.

Three students studying in a pod in the library at Cardiff campus

Top in Wales for new business startups for the 6th consecutive year, and 7th in the UK. (HEBCIS)

Explore our facilities

Calon

Get hands-on with industry-standard equipment in the new £60m Calon building. From robotics and virtual reality to specialist engineering labs and a flight simulator, you'll learn using the technology shaping tomorrow's world.

Learn more

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).

Real Estate including Foundation Year
- Full-time, 4 years
- September
- Pontypridd
Apply direct

Real Estate including Foundation Year
- Full-time, 4 years
- September
- Pontypridd
Apply direct

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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Real Estate including Foundation Year