Placement Year Degrees

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We offer the opportunity to take a placement year as part of our on-campus undergraduate degree courses*

*Excluding two-year accelerated degrees

What is a placement year?

A placement year is an option usually taken after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year. It can give you the opportunity to build on what you've already learned on your course by applying it in the real world.

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a businesses or organisation. This can be on one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks. For international students with a student visa, the maximum duration of a placement year is 36 weeks.

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the RealWORKS employability team. The RealWORKS team can help you with things like researching and identifying opportunities, building your CV, practice interviews and will also post available placements on our student jobs portal Handshake.

Throughout your placement, or placements, you’ll be in touch with an academic member of staff from Falmouth who can support you, to make sure you’re learning from and reflecting on your experience.

Why take a placement year?

A placement year is a great way to enhance your studies by broadening your experiences and gaining sought-after and transferable workplace skills.

Students who undertake placement years may find that everything they’ve learned while working in industry helps them to achieve a better overall degree grade.

Real insights into industry and the world of work will also enhance your future employability. You’ll get experience for your CV that will help you stand out from the crowd after graduation and a network of contacts that could help you as you take the next steps in your career.

How to apply

You can apply for this course before you come to Falmouth, or you can switch onto the placement year route before the end of your second year if you apply for a course without the placement year.