Our well-established part-time MA Education course is about extending your understanding of teaching theory and practice.

The course is designed for those who are teaching, or are spending a significant part of each week supporting teaching and learning.

It aims to have a direct impact on your teaching approaches and help you to become a more rounded, reflective practitioner.

The course focuses on the key educational processes that underpin learning, teaching and the positive management of change.

You will develop your understanding of current policy, theory and research and consider how these relate to your day-to-day practice.

You will enhance your ability to analyse, critique and develop your own and others’ practice while building upon your intellectual, organisational and professional skills. Research skills are incorporated into all modules.

Tailored to your professional commitments, the study mode is only evenings where for part-time students is once per week and for full-time students is twice per week.

To support each stage of this process you will have expert input from UEL lecturers as well as engaging with key readings. You will then work with your fellow students in discussion groups to exchange ideas, perceptions and experiences.

Tutors provide guidance and support, but we place an emphasis on reflection and collaborative learning. With the typical pace of a teacher’s working life, the time and opportunity to reflect and learn in consultation with teachers from other schools is a welcome resource on this course.

All modules allow you to personalise the assessment task to focus on an area of interest or need in your own context. The dissertation provides you with the opportunity to carry out a small-scale research project designed to solve an identified problem.

The high level of accessibility to your tutor is one of the things that make us different, and is often commented on in module and course feedback from students.

The school-based MA Education is particularly popular with local schools.

“Schools have loved our offer of going to them rather than teachers having to travel to UEL at the end of the school day,” says Course Leader Dr Margaret Etherington.

“We fit the modules around what the school needs to ensure impact. The timetable and study materials are all negotiable.

“It’s all about overcoming the barriers to enable school-based students to complete their MA. And they still have the library access and all the advantages of being UEL students.”

This MA degree demonstrates that you are able to think and function at a higher level, which means that you are more likely to be selected and recruited for promotion.

The research skills you develop on this course are also highly sought after in the current climate.

Sometimes the career progression aided by this course can be subject-specific. For example, a recent course graduate wrote her dissertation on literacy and secured a literacy post within her school as a result.

Students on this course are all employed in local schools or other education contexts. On completion of the course they either stay in their current workplace, often in a more senior role, or apply for promotion in a different institution.