Education, Public Policy & Equity (Taught)

The Masters in Education, Public Policy & Equity provides the broad preparation needed for work in education policy. The teaching methods emphasise dealing with applied issues and facilitate your development as a critical thinker through engaging with real life issues.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME

• This interdisciplinary programme draws on sociology, political science, and economics to provide you with a rigorous and broad grounding in theory for studying education as a vital component of public policy.

• This academic programme places joint emphasis on qualitative and quantitative analytical methods, which are reinforced through application to real policy issues under the guidance of experienced tutors.

• The teaching and assessment methods emphasise working critically with complex arguments. This will prepare you for the normative judgements required by decision makers once the limits of positive analysis have been reached.

• This programme was developed by the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change to address the increasingly wider range of contemporary challenges in education policy, particularly public policy aims relating to equity, health, social policy and the economy.

• You will explore how equity in education influences equity in society and vice versa. Educational disadvantage and inequity do not exist in isolation from other forms of disadvantage. Therefore, the programme critically analyses the ability of education policy to influence wider social issues.

• The programme builds on an international tradition of postgraduate programmes studying education policy and reinterprets this through an integrated focus on equity.

• Education at Glasgow is ranked 3rd in the UK by the Good University Guide 2026, and 7th in the UK by the Complete University Guide 2026.

PROGRAMME STRUCTURE
You will take four core courses and two optional courses, as well as complete a dissertation on a chosen topic.

Core courses
Education and Public Policy
Education Policy in Action
Equity, Social Justice and Change
Policy Enquiry And Decision-Making

Optional courses may include
Advanced Policy Enquiry
Economics for Education and Public Policy
Education and International Development
Higher Education as a Field of Research, Policy and Practice
International and Comparative Education
Educational Change for Collaborative Improvement

CAREER PROSPECTS
Employment: Past Graduates have found employment across the globe; they are working as administrators, lecturers, and researchers in Higher Education; as teachers, of all subjects, in primary and secondary schools; as advisors in education and policy making relating to a variety of topics, including privatisation, marketability, sustainability; and there are those who are developing their own initiatives utilising the skills they gained in this programme.

Opportunity: Education is increasingly part of a broader spectrum of public policy issues relating to health, social policy, and the economy. Experience in this growing field, particularly as it relates to an ever-widening range of objectives and policy discourse on an international scope will be invaluable. This programme is designed to provide individuals with that necessary skillset and international outlook.