The University is changing the way it offers foundation provision to international students.

From September 2016, we will be working with an external partner to expand the scale of foundation provision, in line with plans for international student growth in the University’s Strategy 2020.

Working with an external partner – Kaplan UK Limited (referred to as Kaplan) – will enable us to increase significantly the number of international students coming to the University through undergraduate foundation programmes and to develop pre-Master’s programmes.

Over the last decade, many UK universities have partnered with external providers to increase their provision in these areas. Kaplan is one of the most well-established providers in the UK and already works with a number of other universities including Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham and York.

Around 20,000 students enrol annually on such programmes in the UK; some of our competitor institutions enrol up to 1,000 students per year, on programmes that deliver UK study skills, key subject knowledge and English language development.

Up until now, the University of Nottingham has chosen instead to offer foundation courses to international students in-house and on a smaller scale, recruiting around 80-100 international students per year. To increase that provision in a way that supports Nottingham as a prime choice, it was recognised that we need to partner with an external provider with the experience, infrastructure and expertise to develop this provision with us.

In light of this, a review of options for expanding our provision began last summer. Following extensive discussions, the recommendations of that review were raised at University Council and Senate. After a competitive process involving a number of potential providers, University Executive Board has now decided to move forward with Kaplan.

This initiative is specifically designed to support international students; current year 0 provision for UK and EU students will not be impacted.

For the Faculty of Engineering, Kaplan will market and undertake admissions for all of the undergraduate foundation provision and pre-masters programmes. However teaching of the engineering and physical sciences undergraduate foundation will be retained by the Faculty of Engineering.

Further updates will be posted on Campus News.