UCL International Pre-Master’s to offer flexible study options in 2021

The UCL International Pre-Master’s (IPM) will be delivered entirely online in the first term (January – March) in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The second term (April – June) will be online for students who prefer not to travel to London. For any students who are in, or wish to travel to London, face-to-face learning will be offered on campus, where circumstances allow and in line with Government guidelines. This gives students complete flexibility to choose how and where to study.

Quality online learning

The online version of the IPM will equip students with the academic and English language skills they’ll need for their future studies in the same way as the face-to-face version.

IPM academics already have experience of delivering high-quality virtual teaching and support from the initial COVID-19 outbreak. All teaching delivery for last year’s course had to be moved online during Term Two.

Ramtin Amintafreshi, an IPM student (2019/20) who progressed to a Master’s at King’s College London this year, said: “As a person who experienced the physical classes as well as online classes, I didn’t experience any considerable differences in terms of teaching quality.

Personally-speaking, I developed the self-confidence and ability to interact with both my lecturers and my native-English speaking classmates from the beginning of my Master's. I also feel more comfortable in my academic writing or research-related to my course.

I think the main challenge of the online classes is that students acted a bit shy to jump into discussions at first. However, lecturers always encouraged us to participate and it didn’t take long for everyone to get used to this new way of learning.”

2020 results

In 2020, 61% of IPM students went on to study at UCL or another top ranked UK university, including LSE and Imperial College London.

IPM Course Coordinator, Marc Achrymienia, said: “I’m extremely proud of the determination, flexibility and creativity that the IPM students and tutors showed in response to the outbreak last year. It was an extraordinary response to an extraordinary situation. 

Our response continues as we create an enhanced IPM course from January, one that is engaging, collaborative, and rewarding.”