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Education Studies (Top-Up)

Entry requirements


GCSE/National 4/National 5

2 GCSEs at grade C or above to include English and Mathematics/2 GCSEs at grade 4 or above to include English and Mathematics.

About this course


This course has alternative study modes. Contact the university to find out how the information below might vary.

Course option

1year

Full-time | 2024

Other options

15 months | Part-time | 2024

Subject

Education studies

**Overview**
Education nurtures curiosity, stokes ambition and shapes careers. On this BA (Hons) Education Studies top-up degree course, you'll study education as a discipline and gain the skills and knowledge you need to work within education across a range of sectors and professions.

You'll turn your Level 5 qualification – such as a diploma, teaching apprenticeship or foundation degree – into a full Bachelor's degree. You'll develop a deeper understanding of how people learn, explore education in relation to society and build on your research skills.

Choose to study full time or part time over 15 months, which enables you to work alongside your course and apply what you learn to your role in real time.

When you graduate, you'll be ready to step up into a career championing education as a lifelong experience, such as in educational practice, professional training, nurseries, youth work or (with further study) teaching.

- Explore cultural, emotional and social learning perspectives, such as the significance of heritage in the educational experience, societal norms in education, and the role of mentoring within an educational context

- Be taught by expert researchers and practitioners from our School of Education and Sociology (EDSOC)

- Study full time or on a part time basis alongside your job

- Graduate with a full Bachelor's degree that’s valued across the education sector

**Careers and opportunities**
This education studies top-up degree will give you a solid grounding in the theory and ideas of practice behind education and the way people teach and learn.

It's ideal if you want a versatile Bachelor's degree that will open doors across the education sector and beyond.

**Further study**
This course does not provide Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), but it does provide the gateway to study for further postgraduate qualifications, including QTS, early years initial teacher training (EYITT), qualifying social work Master's and other postgraduate courses.

For example, once you graduate with this BA (Hons) Education Studies top-up degree, you could do further postgraduate study to become a teacher via a PGCE course, such as our Primary PGCE or Further Education and Training PGCE.

Or you could become an early years teacher with our GradCert Early Years Initial Teacher Training course.

**What jobs can you do with a Education Studies (Top-Up) degree?**

Roles our graduates have taken on include:
- teaching in primary education (with further training)

- teaching in colleges (with further training)

- early years teacher (with further training)

- social worker (with further training)

- senior management roles in nurseries

- senior positions in education and training in areas such as nursing and police work

When you finish the course, our Careers and Employability service can help you find a job that puts your skills to work in the industry. You can get help, advice and support for up to 5 years after you leave the University as you advance in your career.

Modules

Each module on this course is worth a certain number of credits.

You need to study modules worth a total of 120 credits. For example, 4 modules worth 20 credits and 1 module worth 40 credits.

Core modules in this year include:

- Dissertation – 40 credits
- Research Methods and Dissertation Proposal – 20 credits

Optional modules in this year include:

- 21st Century Lives – 20 credits
- Aspiring Leaders and Managers - 20 credits
- Behaviour Matters - 20 credits
- Education and Society – 20 credits
- Going Outside: Pedagogies for Outdoor Learning - 20 credits
- Issues Relating to Children and Young People's Mental Health - 20 credits
- Promoting Confident, Capable Learners - 20 credits
- Risks, Relationships and Responsibilities in Universal Safeguarding - 20 credits
- Skills for Mentoring in An Educational Context – 20 credits

We use the best and most current research and professional practice alongside feedback from our students to make sure course content is relevant to your future career or further studies.

Therefore, some course content may change over time to reflect changes in the discipline or industry and some optional modules may not run every year. If a module doesn’t run, we’ll let you know as soon as possible and help you choose an alternative module.

Assessment methods

You’ll be assessed through presentations, essays, reports and a dissertation.

Tuition fees

Select where you currently live to see what you'll pay:

Channel Islands
£9,250
per year
England
£9,250
per year
EU
£9,250
per year
International
£16,200
per year
Northern Ireland
£9,250
per year
Republic of Ireland
£9,250
per year
Scotland
£9,250
per year
Wales
£9,250
per year

The Uni


Course location:

University of Portsmouth

Department:

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Read full university profile

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.

82%
Education studies

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

93%
Staff make the subject interesting
88%
Staff are good at explaining things
94%
Ideas and concepts are explored in-depth
90%
Opportunities to apply what I've learned

Assessment and feedback

Feedback on work has been timely
Feedback on work has been helpful
Staff are contactable when needed
Good advice available when making study choices

Resources and organisation

76%
Library resources
88%
IT resources
71%
Course specific equipment and facilities
87%
Course is well organised and has run smoothly

Student voice

Staff value students' opinions
Feel part of a community on my course

Who studies this subject and how do they get on?

99%
UK students
1%
International students
9%
Male students
91%
Female students
79%
2:1 or above
15%
First year drop out rate

Most popular A-Levels studied (and grade achieved)

C
D
D

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.

£18,000
med
Average annual salary
100%
med
Employed or in further education
57%
med
Employed in a role where degree was essential or beneficial

Top job areas of graduates

31%
Childcare and related personal services
17%
Welfare and housing associate professionals
16%
Teaching and educational professionals

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.

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.

£16k

£16k

£22k

£22k

£23k

£23k

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 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