Postgraduate study
Edinburgh: Extraordinary futures await.

Inclusive Education MSc, PgDip (ICL)

Awards: MSc, PgDip (ICL)

Study modes: Full-time, Part-time Intermittent Study

Accreditation

Funding opportunities

Programme website: Inclusive Education

The experience of engaging with the MSc Inclusive Education has been a life-changing one, both personally and professionally. Studying at Moray House has provided me with a range of opportunities which have encouraged me to critically reflect on my teaching practice, engage with other teaching professionals and develop my academic writing skills.

Michelle Mackay MSc Inclusive Education 2019
Michelle Mackay               MSc Inclusive Education 2019

The MSc Inclusive Education has been designed for graduates who want to make a difference to the lives of children and young people in education. Our distinctive approach presents a re-imagined future for learners and teachers, where responding to human diversity is recognised as the point, not the problem, of education.

Enhance your opportunities for employment or advancement in the education field, particularly concerning educational and social disadvantage, additional support for learning and other specialist areas, on this programme. If you are a graduate in education, psychology and related social science backgrounds you will find that the programme builds on your previous study.

You will compare inclusive educational practices in Scotland, the UK and across the world. You will study particular approaches to removing barriers to learning and including all children.

The programme offers a number of routes, including Postgraduate Diploma specialist pathways designed primarily for people who are teaching or who want to teach in these specialist areas:

  • Postgraduate Diploma (visually impaired learners)
  • Postgraduate Diploma (deaf learners)
  • Postgraduate Diploma (multilingual learners)

Accreditation

The British Association of Teachers of the Deaf has endorsed the PgDiploma Inclusive Education (Deaf Learners) pathway and supports the way it acts as a professional qualification.

The Scottish Association for Visual Impairment Education (SAVIE) has endorsed the PgDiploma Inclusive Education (Visually Impaired Learners) pathway and supports the way it acts as a professional qualification.

Colleagues from NALDIC, the subject association for EAL, contribute to learning and teaching on the PgDiploma Inclusive Education (Multilingual Learners) pathway, as we jointly seek to promote educational excellence and equity for all pupils, across the UK and internationally.

Accredited Provider of the Mandatory Qualification for specialist teachers in England

For teachers who reside and work in England, to teach a class of pupils with hearing impairment (HI), vision impairment (VI), or multi-sensory impairment (MSI), a teacher must hold a mandatory qualification in addition to qualified teacher status.

To offer the mandatory qualification in sensory impairment (MQSI), providers must be approved by the Department for Education. Our MSc Inclusive Education (Visually Impaired Learners) is accredited by the Department for Education.

For those who reside elsewhere in the United Kingdom, this qualification is recognised as leading to the Qualified Teacher of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (QTVI) qualification.

You will be taught through a combination of:

  • workshops
  • lectures
  • seminars
  • problem-based learning activities
  • debates
  • peer group learning

The Master's degree culminates in an independently researched dissertation for another 60 credits.

Compulsory courses

  • Sources of Knowledge
  • Conceptualising research

And one of the following:

  • Collaborative Working in Children’s Services
  • Education for All
  • Inclusive Pedagogy
  • Teachers as Agents of Change

Option courses

You will choose around four option courses (80 credits). Option courses are subject to change each year but have previously included:

  • ADHD, Dyspraxia and Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties: an introduction
  • Assessing pupils/students with visual impairment
  • Audiology and audiometry
  • Autism and Developmental Disabilities
  • Autism Spectrum Disorder, Developmental Language Disorder and Dyslexia
  • Collaborative working in children's services
  • Comparative approaches to inclusive and special education
  • Education for all
  • Foundations of international child protection
  • Inclusion of children with visual impairment: policy and practice
  • Inclusive Pedagogy
  • Language and communication
  • Multilingual Learners and Additional Support Needs
  • Multilingual Learners and Specific Learning Difficulties
  • Teachers as agents of change
  • Placement / Inclusion (for teachers of deaf children)
  • Specific learning difficulties: Dyslexia
  • An option course worth up to 40 credits from within Moray House School of Education and Sport or from elsewhere in the University (at SCQF level 11), subject to approval by the Programme Director

Specialist Pathways for Teachers

Our part-time specialist pathways offer practising teachers a Postgraduate Diploma in teaching deaf, visually impaired or multilingual learners. You will meet the Scottish and English governments' mandatory qualification for teaching deaf and visually impaired children and gain greater insight into working with multilingual learners.

Courses particularly aligned to these pathways include:

  • Cerebral Visual Impairment
  • Issues and strategies for teaching and learning (visual impairment)
  • Promoting achievement and curriculum access to deaf / multilingual learners
  • Deaf Studies
  • The developing multilingual learner
  • Professional Placement

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

AwardTitleDurationStudy mode
MScInclusive Education1 YearFull-timeProgramme structure 2023/24
PgDip (ICL)Inclusive Education (Deaf Learners)Up to 4 YearsPart-time Intermittent StudyProgramme structure 2023/24
PgDip (ICL)Inclusive Education (Visually Impaired Learners)Up to 4 YearsPart-time Intermittent StudyProgramme structure 2023/24

Graduates of the MSc Inclusive Education are equipped to:

  • develop and appropriately apply knowledge, skills and attitudes relevant to inclusive education and the contexts in which it takes place
  • reflect critically on the relationships between theory and practice and explore issues in the implementation of educational and social principles and ideals
  • engage with and where appropriate influence policy issues and the practice of professionals in relation to the delivery of inclusive education
  • develop extended skills in research and enquiry, including the use of literature, reviewing evidence, gathering, organising and evaluating data, responding to evidence and providing critical comment

Suiting newly qualified teachers and experienced practitioners alike, this programme provides a qualification that can open doors to a new career in inclusive and special education or an advanced role in the field.

Many graduates continue or go on to become teachers in schools and further/higher education, taking on leadership positions in education, or specialist or peripatetic teaching posts in relation to visually impaired, deaf or multilingual learners. Some work with NGOs and third sector organisations, in policy positions in education, or go on to doctoral-level research.

It can also provide the foundations for a career in policy formation and development, as well as a broad range of highly transferable skills, such as communication and project management, which can be applied to roles in any field.

These entry requirements are for the 2024/25 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2025/26 academic year will be published on 1 Oct 2024.

A UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent, in a relevant discipline.

Students from China

This degree is Band C.

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

  • IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.5 in writing, and 6.0 in all other components. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
  • TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 23 in writing, and 20 in all other components. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements
  • C1 Advanced (CAE) / C2 Proficiency (CPE): total 185 with at least 176 in writing, and 169 in all other components.
  • Trinity ISE: ISE III with passes in all four components.
  • PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 62 in writing, and 59 in all other components.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS, TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE, in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old* at the beginning of your programme of study. (*Revised 05 March 2024 to extend degree validity to five years.)

Find out more about our language requirements:

AwardTitleDurationStudy mode
MScInclusive Education1 YearFull-timeTuition fees
PgDip (ICL)Inclusive Education (Deaf Learners)Up to 4 YearsPart-time Intermittent StudyTuition fees
PgDip (ICL)Inclusive Education (Visually Impaired Learners)Up to 4 YearsPart-time Intermittent StudyTuition fees

Moray House Country Scholarship

Moray House School of Education and Sport is pleased to offer five £10,000 scholarships to study a Master’s degree programme commencing in September 2024. These will be based on merit and available to applicants from eligible countries.

Moray House Access Scholarship

Moray House School of Education and Sport is pleased to offer a scholarship covering tuition fees and living costs for one student. The scholarship is for UK nationals domiciled in the UK, from backgrounds or groups which are underrepresented in our School.

GREAT scholarship: Mexico

One GREAT scholarship will be available to applicants from Mexico who apply for 2024 entry. This award is for £10,000 towards postgraduate taught (Masters) degree tuition. Further details on eligibility criteria and how to apply can be found on the GREAT scholarship website.

UK government postgraduate loans

If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.

The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:

  • your programme
  • the duration of your studies
  • your tuition fee status

Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.

Other funding opportunities

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport
  • Old Moray House
  • Holyrood Campus
  • Edinburgh
  • EH8 8AQ
Programme start dates Application deadlines
9 September 2024 6 June 2024
6 January 2025 6 June 2024

Due to high demand, the school operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through a competitive process.

Please be aware that applications must be submitted and be complete, i.e. all required documents uploaded, by the relevant application deadline in order to be considered in that round. Your application will still be considered if you have not yet met the English language requirement for the programme.

Deadlines for applicants applying to study in 2024/25:

Round Application deadline Places awarded by
1 01 November 2023 19 December 2023
2 11 December 2023 28 February 2024
3 04 March 2024 16 May 2024
4 06 June 2024 30 July 2024

You must submit one reference with your application.

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

Further information

  • Moray House School of Education and Sport
  • Old Moray House
  • Holyrood Campus
  • Edinburgh
  • EH8 8AQ