International Foundation Programmes
The King’s International Foundation Programme is a specialist academic course designed for ambitious international students who want to progress to a related undergraduate degree at King’s College London or another UK university.
These full-time programmes develop your essential knowledge in a chosen subject area; introduce you to the UK higher education system; and improve your academic English so that you are fully prepared for your degree.
The International Foundation Programme offers a supportive environment to transition from high school to university study. Students have around 15 hours of contact time per week including lectures for large groups and smaller seminars and tutorials of around 16 students. See a sample timetable here.
2025 application information coming soon.
We offer four methods of study and you should read carefully to ensure you apply for the right option for you.
King’s International Foundation Programme is for students with an IELTS score of 6.0 with no skill below 5.5. There is also the King’s International Foundation Blended Programme for students who wish to study their first term online, from September, and arrive on campus in January for the remainder of the programme.
The Extended King’s International Foundation Programme is for students with an IELTS score of 5.5 with no element below 5.0. This programme starts in August with an additional five weeks of online intensive academic English preparation. Students will then join the rest of the King’s International Foundation cohort in September.
There is also a Blended option for the Extended Programme where students complete the five weeks’ intensive English online, followed by the first term of the Foundation online, before arriving on campus in January to complete the programme.
The Blended Programme option is not available on Biology & Chemistry, Computer Science & Maths, Engineering & Maths and Maths & Physics.
Our Foundation pathways have been designed with King’s faculties to map on to our degrees. You can read about each pathway below.
Each pathway has a ‘Degree eligibility’ tab, which lists the degrees to which you can progress from that pathway, if you successfully complete your foundation and meet the conditions of your offer. We recommend that you choose a pathway that interests you, for which you will be qualified, and that leads to degrees that you would like to study.
Some degrees are accessed via more than one pathway, e.g. Psychology, Mathematics, Geography and more; other degrees are only accessible via a single pathway, e.g. Law via Global Politics & Social Science and Medicine via Biology & Chemistry. Economics & Mathematics and Mathematics & Business Management open up all the undergraduate degrees in King’s Business School while Business Management & Social Science does not. With this in mind, you should spend time investigating the degrees on offer under each pathway to make sure the right options are open to you.