Education (Research)

PhD
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.

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.

DProf
The Aberystwyth University DProf programme combines taught modules with research conducted by students under the supervision of staff who have expertise in the topic of study. Taught modules such as ‘Leadership for Researchers’ allow students to reflect on their own professional experience which can then be applied to research settings, while modules focusing on quantitative and qualitative research methods provide students with the skills required to collect and analyse data.

The ‘Pilot Study’ module allows students to test their research skills by designing and analysing a small-scale project using their own research data. In the first year of study the supervisory team supports students to complete the taught modules, and in the second and third year of study supervisors work closely with students to undertake research on the chosen topic area.