Foundations: Issues Facing the Church Today

This unit will be available in April 2026 and is taught in ten sessions over ten weeks, with a further five weeks to prepare and submit your assessment. The first and last sessions are live seminars which you will need to attend either online or onsite at Cliff College; the dates for these seminars will be available in late 2025.

The other eight sessions are designed for independent study and are made up of video content, reading, written tasks and other creative activities to help consolidate your learning. These can be done at any time in the week that suits you. We recommend that you allow two hours of learning for each session, plus time for reading and assessment preparation. The assessment will usually include writing an essay or creative article, recording a short presentation and completing some online exercises.

Throughout the unit you will have opportunities through scheduled online meetings to check in with Cliff College staff, discuss your learning and experience of the unit, seek guidance on assessments and ask any questions you have.

This course costs £400, including access to all teaching materials and tutorial support throughout your course.

Applications for this unit will open in summer 2025. If you have any questions about the unit or would like to speak to someone before applying, please contact enquiries@cliffcollege.ac.uk.

Entry requirements

A Level 3 qualification (such as an A Level) or equivalent.

It is recognised that standard procedures for assessing applications may not always provide an accurate understanding of an applicant's suitability. In such cases where a Level 3 qualification is not held, qualification it is still possible to apply, and these applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, in line with our non-standard entry process.

English language proficiency

Applicants whose first language is not English shall have achieved an overall IELTS score of 6.0 or equivalent in an equivalent recognised test. This must have been achieved no longer than two years before the date of enrolment on the unit.

Part of learning on a Foundations unit is preparing and submitting assessments. These are normally a creative written assessment and a recorded presentation. There are also two sets of multiple-choice questions (one at the mid-point of the unit, one at the end) which form part of your overall grade.

For this unit, your assessments will be:

• Write an 800-word creative article on an issue faced by the church today;
• Prepare and record a ten-minute presentation on an approach to ethics or public theology.

You will receive further information and guidance on preparing and submitting assessments when you have enrolled on your unit, both as part of the orientation course and in the unit overview materials. There are also scheduled online meetings with Cliff College staff throughout the unit, where you can ask questions about the assessments or any other element of the unit.