Overview
Our Masters in Education is designed for established educationalists, aiming to advance their understanding of education, as well as those looking to convert their career to this field.
The University of Stirling has a strong reputation for the study of Education and we hold expertise in Digital Pedagogies, Leadership and Curriculum. Throughout this course, international scholarly perspectives are incorporated within learning and teaching, including blended learning and the inclusion of multilingual and translanguaging pedagogical practices.
The course will give you the opportunity to specialise in some of the most important fields in education: digital pedagogies, curriculum and leadership. You’ll be equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to make identifiable contributions to public and private education spaces, including international government, research and practice.
You will study a compulsory diet of education philosophy, social justice, and policy, alongside research methods in the social sciences. You will also choose a modular pathway in either digital education, curriculum or leadership, or a combination of two modules from these pathways, completing your studies with a dissertation in a related topic of your choice.
The quality learning experiences offered by the MSc in Education are underpinned by international scholarly perspectives and approaches that enable you to facilitate and assimilate knowledge via your own and others’ cultural lenses and language practices.
This course aims to advance your understanding of UK and international education to progress your career in education contexts. On completion of the course, students will be able to:
- engage in innovative and creative approaches that impact the field of Education across sectors;
- adopt socially intelligent practices in Education, become critically literate in a range of education studies, including Digital Pedagogies, Curriculum, and Leadership;
- demonstrate digital specialisms, drawing directly from learning in digital literacies;
- enact responsible practices with regard to a wide range of issues in education, within the overarching theme of social justice;
- encourage positive change across the Education sector locally and internationally.
If you’re interested in studying a module from this course, the Postgraduate Certificate or the Postgraduate Diploma then please email Graduate Admissions to discuss your course of study.
Our staff routinely keep abreast of changing cultural and education climates, and the ongoing development of pedagogies, to meet the developing needs of the student body.
Entry requirements
A minimum of a second class honours degree or equivalent. Applicants without these formal qualifications but with significant appropriate/relevant work experience are encouraged to apply.
One reference required as standard.
Permission to study in the UK.
International entry requirements
If English is not your first language you must have one of the following qualifications as evidence of your English language skills:
- IELTS Academic or UKVI 6.5 with a minimum of 6.0 in each sub-skill.
- Pearson Test of English (Academic) 62 overall with 60 in each sub-skill.
- IBT TOEFL 80 overall with 18 in reading, 23 in writing, 19 in listening and 21 in speaking.
See our information on English language requirements for more details on the language tests we accept and options to waive these requirements.
If you need to improve your English language skills before you enter this course, our partner INTO University of Stirling offers a range of English language courses. These intensive and flexible courses are designed to improve your English ability for entry to this degree.
Find out more about our pre-sessional English language courses.
Course details
You will learn via blended learning opportunities, including face-to-face seminars and lectures, digital platforms which will help you to progress your learning online and you will also receive online and face-to-face lecturer support and feedback throughout the course.
The Masters in Education aims to:
- develop innovative, critical thinking, subject specialists and informed, innovative, critical and contemporary thinkers. You will be able to make an impact in the field of education, with a particular focus on Digital Learning, Leadership and Curriculum;
- equip you to become a digitally literate leader, with social justice at the centre of your knowledge production and education practice;
- create partnership and knowledge exchange opportunities for the university, students and staff, through creating links with potential partnership institutions, international learning hubs and knowledge transfer initiatives.
Modules
Compulsory modules:
- What is Education?
- Education and Social Justice
- Education and Policy
- Research Design and Process
- Dissertation
Optional modules:
- Pedagogies of Technology
- Learn, Work & Lead Critically with AI & Data
- Educational Leadership 1
- Educational Leadership 2
- Curriculum: Concepts and Practices
- Key Debates in Curriculum Studies
Modules
The module information below provides an example of the types of course module you may study. The details listed are for the academic year that starts in September 2024. Modules and start dates are regularly reviewed and may be subject to change in future years.
Course Details
The Masters in Education is taught via a blended learning approach, including face-to-face seminars and lectures, digital platforms and online lecturer support and feedback throughout the course.
You will benefit from specific learning opportunities, created to encourage development in teamwork, communication, interpersonal skills, creativity and problem-solving, skills that employers value. These quality learning experiences are underpinned by international scholarly perspectives and approaches that enable you to facilitate and assimilate knowledge via your own and others’ cultural lenses and language practices.
The innovative pedagogies employed in the Education Subject Group at Stirling, critically engage with Universal Design for Learning methodologies, suggested to be particularly effective for language learners and students with diverse needs, diagnosed or not.
Specifically, said pedagogical approaches include:
- encouraging students to adopt translanguaging practices for learning, where students will be encouraged to learn in their own language(s), whilst reporting back in English. Specifically, students will be encouraged to draw from sources derived from their country of origin, in order to support deep learning, consolidation of course content and intercultural lenses in learning;
- encouragement of non-anglo-centric approaches to knowledge exchange, including sharing of international scholarly knowledge and cultural experiences, to enhance and develop further international perspectives on education;
- explicit guidelines and expectations around academic writing, assessment and plagiarism;
- clear expectations for engagement (turn-taking for all, for example);
- SLS induction event and use of SLS resources specifically for OS students;
- flexible approaches to assessment, including critical approaches to ‘authentic assessment’, enabling students to produce written / oral pieces and digital artefacts that create learning outcomes that are applicable to the workplace;
- drop-in / Q+A sessions to enable students to gain face-to-face formative feedback and guidance;
- recorded lectures with worksheets, points for recap, consolidation and progression;
- online lectures in headlined sections, to enable iterative learning opportunities;
- routine chunking of all materials and delivery, where structure of seminar / lecture / workshop delivery is designed to include regular plenary and mini-plenaries;
- Peer mentoring and buddy schemes, to support learning and consolidation.
Assessment will be both formative and summative, with summative assessments taking the form of written reports, enquiry-based projects, presentations and digital artefacts. There are no formal exams associated with this course
There are varied summative, multi-modal assignments across modules, including written, verbal and digital outputs, incorporating presentations, enquiry-based projects, written assignments and digital artefacts, alongside formative assessment to scaffold learning and outcome.
All modules within the course are run face to face, with blended elements, apart from two modules, designed to be run online due to their content:
- Pedagogies of Technology
- Learn, Work and Lead Critically with AI & Data
Most modules will include 24 scheduled hours and 176 independent study hours, totalling 200 hours overall. The Dissertation module includes 15 scheduled hours, 10 hours supervised and 575 independent study hours: a total of 600 hours.
Module Lead, What is Education?: Dr. John I’Anson
John is currently Principal Investigator for a Scottish Government research project (2018-21) that inquires into how teachers promote equity in schools through translating theory into practice and supporting colleagues in mentoring relations. He currently lectures on the Initial Teacher Education (ITE), Professional Education Masters, and Master of Education Research programmes within the Faculty of Social Sciences. His book, Schooling Indifference (Routledge, 2017), written with Alison Jasper, explores ways in which cultural difference might be engaged within education. He has also written on educational theory, inclusion, and children's rights. John was until recently Convenor of the Research in Children's Rights network for the European Conference on Educational Research. He is currently Depute Director of the Centre for Child Wellbeing and Protection at the University of Stirling.
Module Lead, Education and Social Justice and Curriculum Pathway Lead: Dr Kay Sidebottom
Kay is a Lecturer in Education and Director for the MSc Education. She also supervises Masters and doctoral students across a range of childhood and education-related topics. Kay’s current research explores how teachers can work with posthuman ideas to facilitate meaningful and disruptive education spaces for our complex times. With a background in community and adult education, her pedagogical specialisms include critical, radical and anarchist education, arts-based practice and community philosophy.
Digital Modular Pathway Lead: Dr Terrie-Lynn Thompson
Terrie-Lynn is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media at the School of Education, University of Stirling. She holds a PhD from the University of Alberta in Canada and completed a SSHRC-funded post-doctoral fellowship at Athabasca University (Canada’s open university). Her program of research focuses on how professional work-learning practices and pedagogical spaces are changing globally, as new web and mobile technologies are increasingly integrated into work and everyday life routines.
Education Leadership Pathway Lead: Dr Aileen Ireland
Aileen is a Research Assistant based at the University of Stirling. She also works as a Lecturer and researcher in the field of professional education. Aileen’s own research relates to the use of technology in teaching and learning practices, adopting a posthuman perspective to her work.
Fees and funding
University of Stirling alumni will automatically be awarded a fee waiver for the first year of Masters studies through our Stirling Alumni Scholarship.
Applicants from the UK or Republic of Ireland who hold a first-class honours degree or equivalent will automatically be awarded a £2,000 scholarship through our Postgraduate Merit Scholarship.
If you need to extend your period of study, you may be liable for additional fees.
If you are studying part time, the total course fee will be split over the years that you study. The total fee will remain the same and will be held at the rate set in your year of entry.
For more information on courses invoiced on an annual fee basis, please read our tuition fee policy.
Eligible students could receive a scholarship worth between £4,000-£7,000. See our range of generous scholarships for international postgraduate students.
If you need to extend your period of study, you may be liable for additional fees.
If you are studying part time, the total course fee will be split over the years that you study. The total fee will remain the same and will be held at the rate set in your year of entry.
For more information on courses invoiced on an annual fee basis, please read our tuition fee policy.
Additional costs
There are some instances where additional fees may apply. Depending on your chosen course, you may need to pay additional costs, for example for field trips. Learn more about additional fees.
Funding
If you have the talent, ability and drive to study with us, we want to make sure you make the most of the opportunity – regardless of your financial circumstances.
Learn more about available funding opportunities or use our scholarship finder to explore our range of scholarships.
Postgraduate tuition fee loans
Scottish students may be eligible to apply to the Students Award Agency for Scotland (SAAS) for loans of up to £11,500 to cover tuition fees and associated living costs.
English students can apply for a loan of up to £12,167 each year as part of the Postgraduate Masters Loan Scheme.
Welsh students can apply for financial support of up to £18,770 as a combination of grant and loan from Student Finance Wales.
Northern Irish students can apply for a postgraduate tuition fee loan of up to £6,500 from Student Finance NI.
International students may be able to gain additional funding from loan providers.
Commonwealth Shared Scholarships
These scholarships are for candidates from developing Commonwealth countries, looking to study selected postgraduate Masters courses. Find out if you could be eligible for a Commonwealth Shared Scholarship.
If you’re domiciled in the UK, you can typically apply to your relevant funding body for help with living costs. This usually takes the form of student loans, grants or bursaries, and the amount awarded depends upon your personal circumstances and household income.
International (including EU) students won’t normally be able to claim living support through SAAS or other UK public funding bodies. You should contact the relevant authority in your country to find out if you’re eligible to receive support.
We aim to be as flexible as possible, and offer a wide range of payment methods - including the option to pay fees by instalments. Learn more about how to pay
After you graduate
Successful completion of the Masters in Education will place you at the cutting edge of international critical thinking, as a digitally literate leader, actively engaged with sustainable practices in policy, curriculum and knowledge production within education.
Possible areas for career opportunities include:
- education Research
- education and government – policy/administration
- education Consultancy
- education in the arts and heritage industries
- activist organisations
- private and community education providers
Completion of the MSc Education also provides you with the opportunity to continue your studies at doctoral-level at the University of Stirling, with the options of EdD, Prof Doc or PhD. We are establishing an online Global Education Curriculum of Praxis to build a community for course students and alumni. This digital space will enable students to continue in dialogue and praxis after formal teaching has concluded.
The Masters in Education at the University of Stirling will provide you with a range of hard skills, including digital learning, and soft skills in teamwork, communication, interpersonal skills, creativity and problem-solving, which international and UK based employers will find attractive.
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