Established in 1892, the School of Education at Aberystwyth University is one of the oldest Education departments in the UK.
Our mission is to combine the best of our traditions for academic excellence with the most up-to-date methods in teaching, student engagement and research.
The School offers both MPhil and PhD degrees. These are research-based degrees, in which students undertake individual research projects under close academic supervision from within the department. They can be studied full or part-time.
The PhD normally takes three years of full-time research (five years part-time), after which students complete and submit a dissertation of 80-100,000 words.
Please see the tuition fee pages for current tuition fees. Please note that all fees are subject to an annual increase.
Funding
Funding opportunities may be available, please check the funding calculator for details.
About this course
Research in the School of Education focuses on three key areas.
Teaching, learning and teaching:
how learners learn
subject knowledge and understanding
ICT and learning
teachers and professional learning
curriculum development
assessment for learning
bilingual education.
Childhood Studies:
how children develop and learn
gender studies
language acquisition and development
health and wellbeing
healthy schools
additional learning needs.
Educational policy:
partnership and collaboration in education
rural education
workforce development in education
leadership in education
community education
national and local educational policy and the impact on small schools.
Modules September start - 2025
Please note: The modules listed below are those currently intended for delivery during the next academic year and may be subject to change. They are included here to give an indication of how the course is structured.
* Also available partially or entirely through the medium of Welsh
Student Testimonials
I'm researching measuring the effectiveness of delivering sexual health education in secondary schools in Nepal. I became interested in this subject after spending over seven years working with young people in Nepal to promote their sexual and reproductive health. Before my PhD, I did an MSc in Public Health and my research title was ‘Parent and Pupil Involvement in Developing and Delivering Sex Education Programmes in Scottish Secondary Schools.’ It was based on secondary data gathered by the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian. The combination of these experiences and knowledge attracted me to conduct research into the sexual and reproductive health of young people. I feel the additional skills that I've gained since joining Aberystwyth University are: Designing a robust study proposal; thematic analysis for qualitative data; more complex data analysis approaches for quantitative data using SPSS; knowledge on mixed study design; and presentation skills. I would highly encourage anyone to join Aberystwyth University if they are serious about their future career in educational research. This is definitely a good place to start your ambitions. After my PhD I’d like to work as an educational / social researcher for a Non-Governmental Organisation e.g. the World Health Organisation, the United Nations Population Fund, UNICEF. Dev Raj Acharya - PhD
