Swansea to offer degrees in education from September

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Swansea University is to offer degrees in education from September 2016, under the leadership of internationally-renowned education expert Professor David Reynolds.

The BA (Hons) Education degree will sit within the College of Health and Human Sciences.

From September 2016, the BA Single Honours programme will receive UK and overseas students through clearing.  Joint honours schemes will be following soon.

Education as a university subject draws on the disciplines of psychology, philosophy, history and the social sciences.  It looks at how people learn and how structures of education operate to foster life-long learning and personal development.

The degree programme considers education in a wide context, not just within formal primary and secondary school settings, but also further/higher education, social services, local and national government, and education within the community.

Students will be able to follow specialist modules that allow them to tailor their degree to their future career goals.  They will also be able to study learning in the digital age, with opportunities to experiment, assess and reflect on digital learning technologies central to current trends in education.

Professor Reynolds, who received the CBE for services to education in the 2002 New Year Honours List, said:  “Wales has a major need to improve its education and to do this needs at least one world class university education department to show the way forward. We intend to be that. We will be conducting research into areas like ‘what makes good schools’ and ‘how to make schools better’. We have established degrees to teach education to undergraduates and in time we will be relating to schools directly with in-service, CPD and Research Degree work. In time we hope to be training teachers to be innovative research/inquiry based practitioners of a new kind. Because we are new, we can appoint the best. We can look at new areas- like neuroscience- and we can pioneer new approaches.”

Senior Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Iwan Davies said: “Swansea University is a vibrant research-led university which thrives on exploration and discovery. As an intensive research University we also excel in the quality of our teaching as shown in the University’s 4th position within the UK in the Times Higher Education rankings published last week.  In the Research Excellence Framework of 2014 Swansea achieved its ambition to move into the top 30 Research Universities in the UK. We have a stimulating and enriching student experience which will ensure that the new education degree will attract students who want to be challenged academically and learn professional skills which ensure excellent employment prospects. Swansea has long been known for our Science and Engineering research and now we are among UK leaders for Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences. We lead Wales in research areas critical to economic growth and population well-being including Environmental Sciences, Medicine and Social Work. Our new Education course will provide excellence in yet another area.”