Program Overview

Course Details

Education BA (Hons)

Year of entry

• 2026 (for 2026 entry, see here; for 2025 entry, see here)

UCAS code

• X300

Duration of study

• 3 years or 4 years with international or placement year

Course summary

Embark on a journey to uncovering the contemporary challenges surrounding education. Become a successful and dynamic educational professional with a proactive approach to navigating the ever-evolving education sector. Whether you want to work in a school and later pursue teaching, or explore youth work in the community, or train as a child psychologist, or maybe even shape educational policy, our Education BA will help to get you started. Our programme equips you with advanced transferable skills in communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving, preparing you for a wide range of careers working with learners and helping people to succeed.

Why study Education at Keele University?

• Global Top 300 for Education (Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings, 2022)
• Examine contemporary challenges in education including inequality, the emergence of artificial intelligence and social change
• Prepare for a wide range of careers across the education sector and beyond
• Benefit from real-world industry experience with a placement year opportunity
• A chance to broaden your horizons and study abroad at a partner university

Education at Keele

Explore this course

• Course overview
• Course structure
• Entry requirements
• Fees and funding
• Supporting you
• Your future career
• Teaching, learning and assessment
• Foundation year

Course overview

Investigate how the education system operates in the modern world and examine a range of theories from disciplines such as sociology, history, psychology and philosophy. Our Education degree covers a broad range of topics from key psychological theories and models to explain how young people develop in the classroom, to core social science principles of designing, implementing, and analysing social research. This programme adopts a distinctive approach to exploring learning theories and themes such as social mobility and inequality.

Our unique combination of educational theory combined with active practical application will provide insight into real world situations to help enhance your skills and expertise as a practitioner in the classroom. You will consider how theories, ideas, and concepts can be applied in practice across a range of environments and age groups, from young people in classrooms to adults in the local community. Throughout the programme you will gain a thorough understanding of education in the past and present and what this means for our future. You will be encouraged to reflect on how political ideas and ideologies shape policy, and learn to design educational solutions for emerging issues such as artificial intelligence and climate change. This can be explored further through your own 'Independent Research Project' by investigating an area of your choice involving data collection and analysis.

Through the use of field trips, guest speakers, and practical learning opportunities such as placements in schools, you will be able to apply your theoretical knowledge to real-world settings, building advanced skills in critical thinking, communication and emotional intelligence. You will have the opportunity to engage with the local community of Stoke-on-Trent and/or Newcastle-under-Lyme to investigate the challenges of inequality in society and how this can impact a person's life and how we can navigate the challenges of marginalisation of particular groups such as the working class, those from ethnically diverse backgrounds, or children with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

At Keele, you will have a variety of opportunities to enhance your academic and professional development. Whether you wish to broaden your horizons by studying abroad, learn a foreign language, or complete a work placement year for industry experience, you can tailor your degree programme based on your future career aspirations.

Course structure

Year 1

• Compulsory modules:
  • Education Past and Present
  • Education Identities and Spaces
  • Understanding Learning in the Classroom
  • Becoming a Social Scientist
• Optional modules:
  • Children and Learners in Society

Year 2

• Compulsory modules:
  • Educational Inequalities
  • Diversity and Inclusion in Education
  • Social Science Research Methods and Data Analysis
  • Social Science at Work
• Optional modules:
  • Critical Issues in Higher Education
  • Work Placement for Social Science

Year 3

• Compulsory modules:
  • Educational Policy: Making Change
  • Education Trends and Futures
  • Independent Research Project
  • Engaged Social Science
• Optional modules:
  • What is Education For?
  • Work Placement for Social Science

Entry requirements

• A Level: BBC
• BTEC: DMM
• T Level: Merit
• International Baccalaureate Diploma: 554 in three Higher Levels or 29 points

Fees and funding

• UK: £9,535 for the 2025/6 academic year (subject to Parliamentary approval)
• International: Band 1, £17,700 for the 2025/26 academic year

Supporting you

• Student support
• Societies
• Careers and Employability team

Your future career

• Teaching
• Youth Work
• Social Work
• Health
• Politics
• Government
• Business
• Journalism
• Charity

Teaching, learning and assessment

• Interactive lectures
• Seminars
• Workshops
• Placements
• Field trips

Foundation year

• Studying a Foundation Year offers an alternative route to Keele, providing preparation for your chosen degree with guaranteed entry onto your undergraduate course once you successfully complete
• The Foundation Year provides an excellent opportunity to better prepare for your chosen degree, with access to all the facilities and support you'd get as an undergraduate student at Keele
• The Foundation Year is a two-semester programme which provides a tailored pre-degree programme of study to better prepare you for the BA (Hons) Education degree