Manchester Metropolitan University
MA in Inclusive EducationManchester, United Kingdom
DURATION
1 up to 2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 20,000 / per year
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
Introduction
MA Inclusive Education
Our MA Inclusive Education Master is a flexible course for anyone interested in critically exploring inclusive education. We offer a full-time route and a part-time route so you can study at a pace that suits you.
From early years practitioners, teachers, and education leaders, to staff in local health authorities, health services, and aspiring researchers, our course appeals to a variety of backgrounds and professions. You’ll be joining a diverse and thriving community of postgraduate students from the UK and across the world.
Analyse key issues, significant debates, and global concepts in the field of inclusive education. Reflect on your understanding of special educational needs and consider the relationship between educational values and the development of inclusive practice.
You will evaluate and learn to think with a range of theoretical frameworks to deepen your critical analysis. And you’ll explore how theory informs how we interpret and analyze key issues in education.
We aim to empower you to approach your research with confidence. You’ll extend your understanding of research techniques to prepare you for completing your dissertation. Throughout the project, you will have access to support from active researchers in our internationally renowned Educational and Social Research Institute(ESRI).
We’ve designed this postgraduate course to allow you to specialize and focus on areas of education that interest you. You can specialize by choosing an option unit based on work by world-class researchers in the Faculty of Education. Your option units may include topics such as literacy and language, educational philosophy, learning in informal settings, or international perspectives in education.
When you graduate, you’ll achieve a master's degree that highlights areas of your personal and professional interest.
Features and Benefits
- World-class research-informed teaching - Experience courses planned and delivered by our award-winning TEF Gold standard team and world-leading Educational and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
- Offsite delivery - within our part-time route, we offer two core modules for offsite teaching. You’ll have the opportunity to learn at your place of employment under the guidance of a university tutor.
- Expert dissertation support - you can work closely with ESRI researchers as part of your dissertation. They’ll help you shape and carry out your own research project, lending expertise in areas such as early childhood, literacy, STEM, and global educational trends.
- Join a diverse postgraduate community - you’ll become a part of a thriving community of postgraduate learners from a variety of professional backgrounds in the UK and across the world. This network helps to enhance your learning experience and further support you through your studies.
- Flexible learning - study either part-time or full-time so that you can fit your masters around your other commitments.
- Tailored to you - we’ve designed this course so that you can shape your learning journey to your individual interests. Choose option modules and coursework topics to reflect specialisms in your personal and professional interests.
- Expand your knowledge - focus on the field of inclusive education and consider alternative approaches through recent research and theory on inclusion and diversity in education to evaluate practice.
- Study in a thriving education city - with a diverse and energetic scene, Manchester is one of the UK’s largest and most popular student cities. Our university shares the city’s strong national and international education links which can support and enhance your learning.
Admissions
Curriculum
Whether you take our part-time or full-time course, you will start your MA in Inclusive Education with two core modules.
In your first module, you’ll critically explore global key issues in inclusive education and look at relevant, current legislation in the UK and how it affects policy and practice in educational settings. You‘ll relate your learning to your practice and understanding of inclusive education, and its wider connection with issues such as social justice.
In the second core module, you’ll engage with theoretical frameworks to deepen your analysis. And you’ll explore how theory informs how we interpret and analyze key issues in education today.
You will examine issues of marginalization, disability, difference, and race and culture, and consider the theoretical frameworks which underpin them. Through this, you’ll start to develop your theoretical position. You’ll draw from fields such as critical pedagogy, disability studies, and critical race theory to think about inclusive education about the challenges of globalization, power, agency, inequality and diversity, and sustainability.
You’ll join students from other education-based master's courses in a third core module, Principles and Practice of Educational Research. We’ve designed this module to develop your understanding of critical issues and methodologies within research and help prepare you for completing your dissertation.
In the fourth module, you’ll pursue your own individual interests by choosing one of a series of option modules. Our option modules are designed and delivered by active researchers from within our internationally renowned Educational and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
We’ve designed these option modules to reflect the world-class research carried out at the Faculty of Health and Education.
Our taught modules are assessed by coursework. This allows you to focus the topic of your work on areas that suit your professional and personal interests.
The final part of your master's is a dissertation. For many students this is the most challenging part of the course, but also the most interesting and rewarding.
With guidance from your expert teaching and support team, you’ll design and carry out a research project of your own and complete a written thesis. Some recent examples of topics include:
- a reflective study of the impact on one family of changes in provision for learners with Special Educational Needs over 30 years
- communicating with severely autistic children in class
- a critical analysis of the principles of inclusive education
You’ll also benefit from our integrated support network of services offered at Manchester Met, as well as our program-specific support provided by your program team. You will have a personal tutor to accompany you throughout your studies. Your tutor aims to provide tailored support and advice from start to finish.
As a student at Manchester Met, you’ll also be able to access Masterclass. Masterclass is a wide range of optional reading groups, writing workshops, and events designed specifically for and with master's students in the Faculty of Health and Education.
Year 1
- Perspectives, Policy and Practice in Inclusive Education
- Conceptualise, Critique, Create: Thinking with theory in inclusive education
- Principles and Practice of Educational Research
- Dissertation
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
Our MA Inclusive Education course aims to progress your career in education and enhance your academic skills for further research ventures.
Through the course, you’ll develop critical thinking skills and gain the theoretical knowledge to question existing education practice, and how it could work in the future.
By choosing your own topics and option unit, our masters course aims to help you focus on your professional development and areas of interest – your priorities, targets and aspirations.
Our graduates have used our courses to help further careers, either in their current sector, or to make an informed leap into a different role or field of education. Many of our students have gone in to management and advisory positions related to inclusion and diversity in schools and other educational settings. Some have developed specialisms in areas of special educational needs, such as autism or dyslexia.
We encourage you to apply your new thinking to practice and carry these creative, innovative approaches forward. This helps you to develop your skills as a systematic, evidence-driven practitioner.
Program delivery
Study and assessment breakdown
Ten credits equate to 100 hours of study, which is a combination of lectures, seminars practical sessions, and independent study. A master's qualification typically comprises 180 credits, a PGDip 120 credits, a PGCert 60 credits, and an MFA 300 credits. The exact composition of your study time and assessments for the course will vary according to your option choices and style of learning, but it could be:
Study
Full-time 20% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
Part-time 20% lectures, seminars, or similar; 0% placement; 80% independent study
Assessment
Full-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination
Part-time 100% coursework; 0% practical; 0% examination