MA Education (part time and specialist pathway)

Start date: September and January  

Course length: You will study part time for between three and six years.

Campus: Kedleston Road site, Derby Campus

Our MA Education allows you to gain credits from a range of modules which result in the award of either an MA Education or an MA Education: Specialist Pathway.

If you're a practitioner in education and you'd like to improve your professional expertise, this course has been developed for you. The modules have been approved and supported by the Teacher Development Agency (TDA 2008-11) so you can be sure that what you learn is up to date and relevant.

This course has also been designed with a flexible approach in order to meet your individual and workplace needs. We'll encourage and support you to complete to Masters Level, but you can choose to exit the course and be awarded a University Certificate of Achievement, Postgraduate Certificate or a Postgraduate Diploma depending on how many credits you achieve. We also provide you with a range of modules to choose from to allow you to create a personally meaningful course suited to your developmental interests. To enhance the flexibility of the course, most modules are delivered on campus; however, some are delivered by e-learning or in educational locations to support your individual needs.

The course will give you stimulating ideas to take back into your workplace, food for thought about your practice, and opportunities to enhance your own students' learning.

You'll qualify with either a straight MA Education (delivered on campus, online and by negotiation from a workplace group), or, if you'd like to focus on a particular area of interest to you, you can study an MA Education in a named specialist pathway. The pathways available are outlined in the table below. The Specialist Pathways are only available through on campus delivery.

You can study our MA Education online. The number of modules available to study in this mode is different to that available on campus. By studying online you will not be able to study any of our specialist pathways. We also offer a full time route of our MA Education which means you can obtain your postgraduate qualification quickly.

What you’ll study

This course is made up of three stages – Postgraduate Certificate, Postgraduate Diploma and MA.

Postgraduate Certificate

To achieve your Postgraduate Certificate you’ll need to gain 60 credits.

Postgraduate Diploma

To achieve your Postgraduate Diploma you’ll need to gain an additional 60 credits, 120 credits in total. You’ll study a further three 20 credit modules to achieve this.

MA

To achieve your MA Education you’ll need to gain 180 credits in total.

You’ll study these modules:

Evidence Based Practice (20 credits)
You’ll develop a critical knowledge of research methodologies, which will help you to undertake your own ethically reliable and rigorous research. You can study this module on campus and online.

Independent Study (40 credits)
This module is the culmination of your course. You’ll research an aspect of professional practice relevant to your chosen pathway, in discussion with your pathway tutor. You can study this module on campus, online or by distance learning.

This is a classroom based course.

UK/EU students

£500 per module (you will usually take 9 modules in total) :

• PG Certificate (3 x 20 credit modules) £1,500
• PG Diploma (3 x 20 credit modules) £1,500
• Masters Independent study (1 x 60 credit module) £1,500

*These fees apply if you're starting this course between September 2013 and August 2014. We recommend you check fee details with us though, as they can change. Costs can increase each year.

How you'll learn

Most modules are delivered on campus at times designed to provide options that can fit around professional and personal commitments or you can choose to study online. You can tailor this course to your own professional interests. Your assignments will be based on educational practice, so are relevant to individual career progression.

How you're assessed

If you choose to study MA Education, you will access all of your learning materials online. You will be assessed through assignments and course work, which means you don’t have to come on campus, giving you the flexibility to fit your studies around your work and family commitments.

This course will open doors for you to work in the wider educational arena such as museums and universities. Our previous graduates have said that the course gave them the confidence to apply for positions they would not normally have considered, and that their professional performance has improved as a consequence. Some of our graduates have gone on to become advanced skills teachers, nursery managers, assistant head teachers, disability coordinators within universities and national trainers for charitable organisations.

You may also wish to go on to further study such as MPhil, EdD or PhD in the Faculty of Education, Health and Sciences.

"The MA Education at Derby provides an excellent opportunity to reflect on professional practice."
Richard Green, current student

"I would recommend studying the MA Education at Derby as it does make you reflect and analyse why we do the job we enjoy and perhaps give insight into ways to enhance this."
Stuart Cameron, student

"I have found that the course has developed my professional confidence and has strengthened my understanding of my professional goals."
Chris Dale, student.

"I really enjoyed the lectures and have learnt such a lot which has informed my current practice. Events and activities in the classroom together with teachers attitudes are viewed in a very different way. Changing and improving established practice is much more difficult to achieve. Beyond the course I have enjoyed the uniform and positive approach from all the lecturers at the University. Access and feedback has been prompt and easy to achieve. This is not true for some of my colleagues at different Universities. There has not been an evening that has been a chore to attend."
Christine Paice, one of our graduates

"I thoroughly enjoyed my course at Derby, and it gave me the confidence and qualifications to progress in my career."
Kathy Hardy, recent graduate