The Masters in Educational and Leadership Management is a core programme of study for leaders and managers in education. It is designed to meet the interests of leaders at all levels who are keen to improve their leadership and management understanding and practices.

The course aims to strengthen your leadership and management skills, and to enable you to apply theory and ideas within your workplace and utilise existing and emerging research-informed knowledge of educational leadership internationally. It will enable you to develop, broaden and deepen your critical understanding of your organisation and the environment in which you operate, manage change and promote the development of yourself, your colleagues and your organisation.

The programme is vitally relevant for middle and senior managers and leaders in schools and post-compulsory educational organisations in the UK and overseas, as well as those who advise these managers and leaders – for example local authority staff, educational consultants, and policy advisors.

Throughout the course, you will develop your skills in critical reflection, critical reading and critical writing; practice-relevant research skills; research design; literature searches; and ethics in educational research. You will carry out independent study in an area relevant to your needs and/or those of your organisation.

Course structure

For MA in Education Leadership and Management, you will need to complete all modules to the value of 120 credits and complete a dissertation of 60 credits. 

Modules are taught within a block over four days over two consecutive weekends and each module will usually be assessed by a written assignments of 5,000 to 6,000 words. At the end of each face-to-face teaching period, students are provided opportunities for tutorials, individual study in groups and/or using other means of communication such as e-mails, telephone and video conference. 

Assessment

Each of the modules has a contact time of 30 hours. In addition, you will be expected to undertake 270 hours of private study, assignment preparation and tutorial support. The module assignments have been designed to incrementally increase your skills and criticality.

Each 30-credit module will usually be assessed by a written assignment of 5,000–6,000 words. Your dissertation is an original piece of work and should be of 12,000–15,000 words (or their equivalent) related to an approved topic on one of the selected modules.

Cohort applications

We welcome approaches from educational organisations who may wish to develop a bespoke cohort programme.

The programme is taught by experienced specialist staff with outstanding national and international reputations and teaching is informed by current research.

Core modules 

Entry requirements

A relevant second class honours degree (or international equivalent). Relevant experience may be required for some of the programmes.

Non-UK qualifications will be assessed against this standard.

Malaysians applying as a matured student without the standard entry requirements but with substantial and relevant work experience (and have successfully passed APEL’s assessment through Malaysian Qualifications Agency) may be considered for an entry at the Postgraduate Certificate Level. Admission is at the discretion of the School.

English language requirements

IELTS (Academic): 6.5 (with no less than 6.0 in each element)

TOEFL (iBT): 87 (minimum 20 in Speaking and 19 in all other elements)

PTE (Academic): 62 (with no less than 55 in each element)

MUET: Band 4

IELTS, TOEFL and PTE (Academic) test results must be less than two years old and all IELTS must be the academic version of the test.MUET results are valid for five years from the date of the release of results.

February,June, September and November