Natural Sciences with a Foundation Year
Natural sciences is an interdisciplinary approach to studying the physical and biological world, allowing you to combine subjects that universities typically keep separate and to develop a broad scientific education rather than early specialisation. The combination of disciplines varies by institution but typically draws from physics, chemistry, biology, earth sciences, and mathematics, allowing you to follow the connections between subjects that scientists in the real world work across every day. It is a degree for those who find the conventional disciplinary boundaries of science frustrating rather than helpful.
At Loughborough University, this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, which is designed for students who have not studied the prerequisite science and mathematics subjects, who have not met standard entry requirements due to adverse circumstances or prior sport commitments, or who are mature students returning to education or care leavers. The foundation year provides the grounding across the sciences and mathematics that the subsequent years build on. Across the main degree you will study a combination of natural science disciplines, developing both depth in your chosen areas and the integrative thinking that a multidisciplinary science education promotes.
Natural sciences graduates have career options as broad as the subject itself. Depending on the combination of disciplines you study, you may be well placed for roles in research and development, environmental consultancy, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, materials science, energy, data analysis, or science education. The integrative and analytical skills the degree develops are also valued in roles where scientific literacy matters but no single discipline dominates, including scientific publishing, policy, and management in science-led organisations.
Postgraduate study in specific scientific disciplines is a common route for those who wish to specialise after their broad undergraduate education.