This course is designed to develop your knowledge and skills in leadership and management in an educational setting. This programme offers you a unique opportunity to customise your learning to match your professional background, needs and aspirations. Assessments are individually tailored making each topic highly relevant to your particular context.
To maximise your learning potential, you will receive individualised attention and the flexibility to select from a wide range of modules. The programme is research driven but with a strong focus on professional practice, making it suitable for establishing an academic career or pursuing middle and senior leadership roles in education organisations. At the end of the course, we anticipate that you will have developed reflective and critical capabilities, providing you with a sound basis for your next career move, alongside the necessary knowledge and skills to respond to a variety of educational leadership challenges within your organisation.
Core modules
Leading Educational Change and Improvement
This module will develop an understanding of educational change and improvement from a research and practical perspective, and look at how that can impact teaching and learning outcomes. You will be comparing, evaluating and critiquing international reform efforts and developing knowledge about the dynamics of improvement as a strategy for change.
Foundation Research Methods in Education (available online for part-time study)
This module encourages students in understanding, designing and implementing research in the field of education. It will introduce you to a range of established research strategies and techniques, including data collection and analysis. These skills will enable you to design and carry out a dissertation research project, as well as to disseminate its findings. As part of this module you will present your research design and have the opportunity to receive feedback ahead of completing your dissertation.
Dissertation
The dissertation is an opportunity to explore, in depth, an area of academic and/or professional interest related to your degree. Building on the knowledge and skills developed during the Foundation Research Methods module, and your other modules, you will conduct an independent research project, developing a deeper understanding of your chosen topic.
From your research project, you will produce a dissertation, with guidance from a supervisor who will be allocated to you. Through the dissertation you will demonstrate the ability to analyse and synthesise relevant literature, produce coherent arguments supported by relevant evidence and logical discussion, and acknowledge sources of ideas and information.
Optional modules
This programme has a number of optional modules to choose from. At least one optional module should have a leadership focus. Our optional module lists are subject to change each year to keep the student learning experience current and up-to-date.