Is foundation year mandatory for international?

I wanted to apply for UCL, without taking foundation year. My close friends told me that all international students MUST take foundation year, even if they are fluent in english.
I really don’t want to take the foundation year, because it’s worthless, if you already know the language itself.

Any help?
Thanks.

Foundation years in the UK have nothing to do with the language. If your secondary school curriculum is not equivalent to A levels, you have a foundation year to catch up on those subjects. They may include English lessons if your ielts is, like, 5.5 or 6.
In the US, there’s no such thing as foundation years. Either you’re in, or not.

Though the US has CC’s, which students transfer in to unis from.