Top Doctorate Degrees in Education in England United Kingdom

A PhD is the most advanced form of postgraduate study. It is awarded on the successful completion of supervised research, verbal examination and final thesis. While an MPhil has less scope and complexity, it requires similar training and research, and is assessed by the submission of a thesis.

In the school, we have a broad commitment to improving and investigating social justice and equality in education. We provide a dynamic research environment, with a community of more than 300 students from 40 different countries. Some study and live here in the UK, while others are based countries around the world and make periodic visits to the UK to see their supervisor(s).

You will study alongside academic experts and will be assigned two supervisors appropriate to your field. Full-time students meet with their supervisors at least 10 times each year, while part-time students meet with them at least six times in the same period.... [-]

The goal of the Ph.D. programme is to prepare the next generation of leading researchers.

The Ph.D. is a programme of independent, self-directed academic research degree, supported by a team of supervisors that makes an original contribution to knowledge written up in a publishable dissertation. The Ph.D. programme also supports the development of research and generic skills to equip you to operate successfully as a professional researcher in any setting. The essential requirement of a Ph.D. is the creation of new knowledge. Being a researcher means developing new ideas and improving understanding through the creation of new knowledge. Your research will inevitably build to some degree on the work and ideas of others, but as a research student, you are expected to make an original contribution to knowledge in your discipline.... [-]

Our group has two broad lines of research activity.

The first is concerned with understanding the source, scope and pattern of education policy; that is in exploring the origins of policies, the nature and definition of the problems that education is asked to solve, and the historical, cultural and social practices that filter or mediate policies. The second concerns educational practices and performance and the development of quality in schooling, including work on the educational potential of new technologies, forms of excellence in teaching practice and the performance of schools.

Research into education policy draws on a diversity of intellectual traditions, including critical social policy, poststructuralist theories of governance, feminism, theories of identity and cultural studies. We have recently focused on two interconnected themes; the reshaping of education governance and its consequences for social inclusion/exclusion and education politics, and families, childhood and identity in education. Research into educational practices and performance and the development of quality in schooling focuses on teaching and learning practice school management and leadership. Projects are often run in close collaboration with schools.... [-]