University of Chester
UCAS Code: X371 | Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
Entry requirements
A level
Pass Access to HE Diploma
International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
Leaving Certificate - Higher Level (Ireland) (first awarded in 2017)
Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma (first teaching from September 2016)
Scottish Higher
T Level
T Level with a Pass grade and D or E on the core
UCAS Tariff
About this course
Do you want to have an impact on the world around you, inspiring critical thinking and challenging inequality? Our BA Education degree course will give you the skills and knowledge to do this, illuminating the transformative power of education. As educational professionals of the future, we realise the significance of widening mindsets and enriching the educational experience. Our passionate tutors will support you in gaining an excellent understanding of the sociology, psychology, and philosophy of education, and how this changes in reaction to national and international developments.
On our course, the study of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is woven into all three years of your studies, meaning you acquire specialised knowledge and practical skills that will help you to create inclusive learning environments, foster every child's potential, and make a meaningful impact in schools, care settings, and beyond. You will also significantly build on your understanding of political science, sociology, philosophy, history and psychology within the academic study of education.
Our lecturers are research-active in a wide variety of educational topics and bring contemporary insight into the classroom that covers education in its broadest sense. You will explore formal, informal, and non-formal ways of learning across all age groups and build an understanding of both lifelong and life wide study.
If you’re interested in specialising in international education, we have second year modules which are designed to provide you with a global perspective on educational systems, policies, and practices, and will give you the opportunity to study abroad - for a short placement or a full academic year! Through doing this, you will increase your understanding of diverse cultural approaches to teaching and learning, naturally enhance your adaptability and cross-cultural communication skills, and attain invaluable and unique experiential overseas learning.
As well as lectures and seminars, you will also receive personal one-to-one reassurance and support throughout your studies. We deliver our curriculum to smaller class sizes, which means we get to know you personally in what one of our international students has described as our "living classroom".
BA Education Pathway
The BA Education course allows you to tailor your learning to focus on a specialist pathway in Education with Applied Psychology. Through studying Applied Psychology, you gain an in-depth understanding of the applications of psychology within education, as well as the influence of diversity upon development, learning and behaviour.
This multidisciplinary pathway aims not only to develop your knowledge and understanding, but also to ensure that you develop the skills, attitudes and confidence to support, educate, nurture, and advocate for children, young people and families throughout your professional career. You will explore the holistic development of children, in-depth psychological theories, educational practice, and insights on how students learn and develop. You will gain an understanding of cognitive processes, motivation, and the emotional factors that impact learning, and will be able to apply psychological principles to create new and effective teaching strategies and support student wellbeing.
We regularly receive feedback from schools and initial teacher education providers saying that our students are well equipped and knowledgeable for progression into teacher training should you wish to choose this career progression route. No matter what area you’re interested in, this course will provide you with skills and experience to progress to a wide range of education-related careers, including both primary and secondary teacher training.
Modules
The BA Education course contains core modules at each level of study. On graduating with an honours degree in education, you will be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the societal and organisational structures and purposes of educational systems, and the possible implications for learners and the learning process. At Level 4, you are introduced to basic values, concepts and theories relating to education and its history, psychology and sociology. Level 5 builds upon this understanding by exploring the diversity of learners and the complexities of the education process whilst introducing students to the research process. This course offers second year modules that provide an opportunity to take the Cambridge English Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA) whilst studying overseas (run in partnership with ISEP, a network of over 300 international student exchange programmes worldwide). This is an amazing opportunity; the CELTA qualification is normally only offered at the postgraduate level, but through our BA Education course, you can gain it as an undergraduate student. At Level 6, you will have acquired a wide range of skills including ethical awareness which will enable them to design and undertake their own research project. You will critically examine and explore the complexity of the interaction between learning and local and global contexts, and the extent to which participants (including learners and teachers) can influence the learning process. The information listed in this section is an overview of the academic content of the course that will take the form of either core or option modules and should be used as a guide. We review the content of our courses regularly, making changes where necessary to improve your experience and graduate prospects. If during a review process, course content is significantly changed, we will contact you to notify you of these changes if you receive an offer from us.
Assessment methods
There will be a broad range of assessment methods so you are exposed to the different types of tasks you might encounter in the workplace. These will include coursework in the form of portfolios, written pieces (both long and short form) and presentations. In some modules, you will encounter digital assessments. We continuously review the assessment methods used in order that they adequately prepare you for graduate level employment. There are no exams on this course.
Tuition fees
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What students say
We've crunched the numbers to see if overall student satisfaction here is high, medium or low compared to students studying this subject(s) at other universities.
How do students rate their degree experience?
The stats below relate to the general subject area/s at this university, not this specific course. We show this where there isn’t enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Education
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
Sociology
Teaching and learning
Assessment and feedback
Resources and organisation
Student voice
Who studies this subject and how do they get on?
Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)
After graduation
The stats in this section relate to the general subject area/s at this university – not this specific course. We show this where there isn't enough data about the course, or where this is the most detailed info available to us.
Education
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
When you look at employment stats, bear in mind that a lot of students are already working in education when they take this type of course and are studying to help their career development. This means they already have jobs when they start their course, and a lot of graduates continue to study, whilst working, when they complete their courses. If your course is focused on nursery or early years education, a lot of these graduates go into nursery work or classroom or education assistant jobs; these jobs are not currently classed as 'graduate level' in the stats (although they may well be in the future as classifications catch up with changes in the way we work), and many graduates who enter these roles say that a degree was necessary.
Sociology
What are graduates doing after six months?
This is what graduates told us they were doing (and earning), shortly after completing their course. We've crunched the numbers to show you if these immediate prospects are high, medium or low, compared to those studying this subject/s at other universities.
Top job areas of graduates
We have quite a lot of sociology graduates, although numbers fell last year. But graduates still do pretty well. Most sociology graduates go straight into work when they complete their degrees, and a lot of graduates go into jobs in social professions such as recruitment, education, community and youth work, and housing. An important option for a sociology graduate is social work - and we're short of people willing to take this challenging but rewarding career. Sociology is a flexible degree and you can find graduates from the subject in pretty much every reasonable job — obviously, you don't find many doctors or engineers, but you do find them in finance, the media, healthcare, marketing and even IT. Sociology graduates taking further study often branch out into other qualifications, like teaching, law, psychology, HR and even maths, so don’t think a sociology degree restricts you to just one set of options.
What about your long term prospects?
Looking further ahead, below is a rough guide for what graduates went on to earn.
Education
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£20k
£24k
£27k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
Sociology
The graph shows median earnings of graduates who achieved a degree in this subject area one, three and five years after graduating from here.
£18k
£21k
£24k
Note: this data only looks at employees (and not those who are self-employed or also studying) and covers a broad sample of graduates and the various paths they've taken, which might not always be a direct result of their degree.
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This is the percentage of applicants to this course who received an offer last year, through Ucas.
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This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
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Course location and department:
This is what the university has told Ucas about the course. Use it to get a quick idea about what makes it unique compared to similar courses, elsewhere.
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Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF):
We've received this information from the Department for Education, via Ucas. This is how the university as a whole has been rated for its quality of teaching: gold silver or bronze. Note, not all universities have taken part in the TEF.
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This information comes from the National Student Survey, an annual student survey of final-year students. You can use this to see how satisfied students studying this subject area at this university, are (not the individual course).
This is the percentage of final-year students at this university who were "definitely" or "mostly" satisfied with their course. We've analysed this figure against other universities so you can see whether this is high, medium or low.
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This information is from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), for undergraduate students only.
You can use this to get an idea of who you might share a lecture with and how they progressed in this subject, here. It's also worth comparing typical A-level subjects and grades students achieved with the current course entry requirements; similarities or differences here could indicate how flexible (or not) a university might be.
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Post-six month graduation stats:
This is from the Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education Survey, based on responses from graduates who studied the same subject area here.
It offers a snapshot of what grads went on to do six months later, what they were earning on average, and whether they felt their degree helped them obtain a 'graduate role'. We calculate a mean rating to indicate if this is high, medium or low compared to other universities.
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Graduate field commentary:
The Higher Education Careers Services Unit have provided some further context for all graduates in this subject area, including details that numbers alone might not show
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The Longitudinal Educational Outcomes dataset combines HRMC earnings data with student records from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.
While there are lots of factors at play when it comes to your future earnings, use this as a rough timeline of what graduates in this subject area were earning on average one, three and five years later. Can you see a steady increase in salary, or did grads need some experience under their belt before seeing a nice bump up in their pay packet?
Have a question about this info? Learn more here