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Summary:


Course Code: X301


Course Code: X3FY

Where Are You Applying From?

How Would You Like To ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½?

When Do You Want To Start Your Studies?

Which Campus Would You Like To ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ At?

Which Options Would You Like With Your Course?

Why choose the School of Education


Over 95% of our full-time UK graduates in education and teaching are in employment and/or further study, 15 months after graduating (Source: HESA Graduate Outcomes data for 2020/21, pub 2023).

95% of our education students were satisfied with the learning opportunities their course offered and how well it developed knowledge and skills for the future (NSS, 2024).

Our Education courses are in the top 10 in their subject table for teaching quality (Times Good ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Guide, 2024).

About the course

This broad-based course is designed to give you a solid foundation in education theory and practice, setting you up for a career in education or working with children. It explores different fields such as psychology, health, law and social welfare while building your understanding of the role of education in modern society in the UK and internationally. There is a strong focus on employability, allowing you to put educational theory into practice through work placements and volunteering including a final-year, work-based unit in an education setting.

Facilities and specialist equipment

  • Mock classrooms with specialist technology so you can watch and assess your lesson.
  • Forest School where you can deepen your understanding of the long-term educational benefits of outdoor learning opportunities.
  • Specialist sensory centre to support your understanding of how teachers teach and children learn, within early years and SEND contexts.
  • Multi-media space for webinars and podcasting.

Industry links

As one of the largest providers of teacher education in the eastern region, we have well-established partnerships with more than 500 schools and other associated organisations, a network that puts us at the forefront of educational developments.

Student experience

  • Flexible unit choices allow you to specialise in a particular area that may align with your future career intentions.
  • You work with an academic team with expertise across sociology, history, philosophy of education and critical pedagogy.
  • Many of our staff also have "previous lives" in frontline professions, including youth work and education, and bring real-world perspectives to teaching sessions.
  • You benefit from the support of your own personal tutor, a unit and course coordinator, and the additional support of our experienced library staff, all of whom will help you throughout your student journey and with balancing study with work and personal commitments.
  • Our Bedford campus is a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well.

with Professional Practice Year

This course has the option to be taken over four years which includes a year placement in industry. Undertaking a year in industry has many benefits. You gain practical experience and build your CV, as well as being a great opportunity to sample a profession and network with potential future employers.

There is no tuition fee for the placement year enabling you to gain an extra year of experience for free.

*Only available to UK/EU students.

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with Foundation Year

A Degree with a Foundation Year gives you guaranteed entry to an Undergraduate course.

Whether you’re returning to learning and require additional help and support to up-skill, or if you didn’t quite meet the grades to pursue an Undergraduate course, our Degrees with Foundation Year provide a fantastic entry route for you to work towards a degree level qualification.

With our guidance and support you’ll get up to speed within one year, and will be ready to seamlessly progress on to undergraduate study at Bedfordshire.

The Foundation Year provides an opportunity to build up your academic writing skills and numeracy, and will also cover a range of subject specific content to fully prepare you for entry to an Undergraduate degree.

This is an integrated four-year degree, with the foundation year as a key part of the course. You will need to successfully complete the Foundation Year to progress on to the first year of your bachelor’s degree.

Why study a degree with a Foundation Year?

  • Broad-based yet enough depth to give you credible vocational skills
  • Coverage of a variety of areas typically delivered by an expert in this area
  • Gain an understanding of a subject before choosing which route you wish to specialise in
  • Great introduction to further study, and guaranteed progression on to one of our Undergraduate degrees

The degrees offering a Foundation Year provide excellent preparation for your future studies.

During your Foundation Year you will get the opportunity to talk to tutors about your degree study and future career aspirations, and receive guidance on the most appropriate Undergraduate course to help you achieve this; providing you meet the entry requirements and pass the Foundation Year.

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Course Leader - Dr Oliver Belas

I have been an educator – working in HE, secondary education (as a classroom assistant and teacher), and HE again – since 2005. I joined the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½â€™s School of Education and English (SEE), where I teach on the Education and English Literature degrees, in January 2018.

Course Leader - Dr Oliver Belas

I have been an educator – working in HE, secondary education (as a classroom assistant and teacher), and HE again – since 2005. I joined the ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½â€™s School of Education and English (SEE), where I teach on the Education and English Literature degrees, in January 2018.

What will you study?


ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ing our Education BA (Hons) course will equip you with a solid foundation in the combined fields of education and special education needs. If you are passionate about working with children, young people and families, our unit in the Narratives of Childhood will be useful in developing your understanding of theories on childhood, youth and education. In areas of teaching, our unit in The Lifelong Curriculum will not only teach you to design curriculum, but how to implement it based on historical and current educational policy. You will keep this knowledge in mind during our Developing Teaching Practice unit, where you will learn to deliver effective classroom sessions based on current research in the field. This ties closely into our Comparative Education unit, where you will adopt a diverse approach to analysing the issues and problems affecting international education. Similarly, our Deschooling unit will allow you to critically analyse accepted norms in education and pedagogy. In more recent areas of study, you will learn about the increasing presence of technology in children and young people’s lives in our Working with Children and Young People in the Digital Age unit.ÌýÌý

Focused on home environments, our Families and Communities unit will allow you to consider the social, economic and cultural factors that shape family experience in a contemporary British society. Similarly, our Contemporary Debates in Education, Childhood and Youth unit will give you the opportunity to debate and investigate the role of the media and political institutions to understand how policies in education are formed. Similarly, you will analyse social policy and inclusion in the context of UK contemporary welfare reform in our unit in The Inclusive Society. In areas of the mind, you will be introduced to Early Child Psychology with a focus on developmental psychology to examine how childhood development impacts learning and how to utilise this within educational settings. Moving up an age group, you will consider the same aspects in our Psychology of Adolescence unit. Similarly, you will focus on how behaviour is understood within educational contexts in our Perspectives on Pedagogy and Behaviour. Moreover, with more young people experiencing mental health issues, our unit in Children and Young People’s Wellbeing will teach you to support children through understanding social and emotional issues in education.ÌýÌý

Similarly, our unit in Representations of Disability will allow you to criticise disability representation in the media and how these influences perceptions of disability. Furthermore, you will analyse current Policy and Practice in Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) to determine if this supports or hinders the needs of individuals with SEND. At the same time, you will look at these issues in a national and global context in our Critical Debates in SEND Education unit. In other areas of study, you will discover why and how Safeguarding and Child Protection has changed in recent years while also completing relevant safeguarding training. Aside from this, you will also be introduced to a range of philosophical concepts and methods in education in our Introduction to Educational Philosophy unit and you can explore the relationship between the two in our Reading Philosophy and Education unit. You will also engage in critical language study in our Discourse and Ideology unit, where you will be introduced to a variety of approaches to conversation analysis. Another key skill as an educational professional is writing, and this is where our Creative Writing unit will introduce you to short stories and poetry that you will share in small group workshops. Similarly, our Children’s and Young Adult Fiction unit will familiarise you with a range of fictional genres written for children, including film adaptations, fairy tales, and other popular fiction. Some of these works include those of Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl and Disney which will allow you to write and phase test on fiction for children.ÌýÌý

Throughout the course, you will also be introduced to aspects of sociology in our Individuals in Society (Education) and our Contemporary Society in a Global World (Education) units. Finally, you will complete a Dissertation on a topic of interest to you under the guidance of a supervisor. To enable your research skills, our unit in Examining Research will allow you to think about how education and sport is developed through research, while our ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ing for Higher Education unit will introduce you to academic study in higher education settings. Similarly, our unit in Investigating the Social World will equip you with an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection, analysis and reporting. Furthermore, our Key Concepts in Education unit will also give you the skills to produce academic work to a higher education standard through debates and written exercises.ÌýÌýÌý

How will you be assessed?


This course aims to provide a wide range of assessment methods to support the diverse needs of our learners. Assessments include exams exhibitions essays webfolios panel discussions debates practicals case studies reflective logs and presentations. The assignments will build directly on the teaching sessions and you will be supported by lectures to complete the assignments. Substantial guidance is provided on the VLE and in detailed assessment briefs. In level 4 more support is provided in the form of formative assessment opportunities and we will explain the role of constructive feedback to you. You will also have more hours dedicated to guided (staff directed learning activities) in level 4 compared to later in the course.

There are opportunities for 1 to 1 and group tutorials to support the assessments both within units and in personal tutorials and staff office hours. The overall purposes of assessment in this course are:

  1. Objectively to measure your achievements against the specified learning outcomes of the unit and course (summative).
  2. To assist student learning by providing appropriate feedback on performance (formative).
  3. To provide a reliable and consistent basis for boards of examiners to determine the progression of and conferment of achievement.

Careers


As well as providing the background needed for application to postgraduate teacher training this course offers graduates potential career options including: working with children and young people such as youth and community work social care education welfare children’s centre charities and youth justice/youth offenders.

 

Entry Requirements

104 UCAS tariff points including 80 from at least 3 A-levels or equivalent

Entry Requirements

48 UCAS tariff points including 32 from at least 1 A-level or equivalent

Fees for this course

UK

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See

Excellence Scholarships

Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*

» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**

» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available

* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.

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International

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.

There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.

A full list of scholarships can be found here.

Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk

Fees for this course

UK

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is £9,250 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See

Excellence Scholarships

Worth £2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*

» If you don’t qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering £500 per year of study**

» Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available

* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.

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International

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is £16,900 per year.

There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.

A full list of scholarships can be found here.

Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk

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