Postgraduate Virtual Open Week 11-15 March
sign up now

MPhil, PhD Education

Apply
Back to course

Research opportunities

The nine main research groups within The Strathclyde Institute of Education are discrete entities that are complementary. There are several topics within each theme, and it may be that colleagues align themselves with more than one research theme and that research cuts across all the research areas we're looking at.

A key focus in considering these themes is the policy context in which The Strathclyde Institute of Education is situated. A major driver in current Scottish education is around closing the attainment gap and reducing inequality. The research themes address this issue in a range of ways.

You can study an MPhil over the course of one year or a PhD over the course of three or four years.

You can also study for a Doctorate of Education (EdD), a taught professional doctorate with a range of specialist pathways which allow you to tie your doctorate studies explicitly to your professional experience.

Back to course

Fees & funding

All fees quoted are per academic year unless otherwise stated.

Entrants may be subject to a small fee during the writing up period.

Fees may be subject to updates to maintain accuracy. Tuition fees will be notified in your offer letter.

All fees are in £ sterling, unless otherwise stated, and may be subject to revision.

Annual revision of fees

Students on programmes of study of more than one year (or studying standalone modules) should be aware that tuition fees are revised annually and may increase in subsequent years of study. Annual increases will generally reflect UK inflation rates and increases to programme delivery costs.

Go back
Scotland
  • 2024/25: £4,786
  • 2023/24: £4,712
England, Wales & Northern Ireland
  • 2024/25: £4,786
  • 2023/24: £4,712
International
  • 2024/25: £18,050
Additional costs

Course materials

Printing is provided free in the Graduate School.

Most books can be borrowed from the library or by inter-library loan. Students may decide to buy a limited number of key text which they may be able to purchase second hand. Students in years one and two may spend £150-£200. Years three and four are writing years, so less so.

Placements & field trips

When required, from £50 to £300 per year, though some assistance is provided from the Faculty's Research Support Fund.

International students

International students may have associated visa and immigration costs. Please see student visa guidance for more information.

Other costs

  • thesis binding - approx. £30
  • pen drives - approx. £20
Postgraduate research opportunities

Search for all funded and non-funded postgraduate research opportunities.

Funding

Take a look at our funding your postgraduate research web page for funding information.

You can also view our scholarships search for further funding opportunities.

Please note: the fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year.

Huaping Li PhD Education graduate
As a lecturer, I feel that I am now better prepared to help young people, particularly future teachers, to move out of their own little bubble, to appreciate differences or diversity in the world as well as in their own countries, communities and classrooms and promote international understanding among their students.
Dr Huaping Li

Our research

Research in education places a strong emphasis on collaboration and cross-disciplinary working. Education at Strathclyde produces leading research focused on nine overlapping themes with national and international relevance:

  • additional support needs and autism
  • educational and social practices in curricular subjects
  • equity and achievement
  • health and wellbeing
  • languages education
  • methodologies for change
  • professional learning, identity and enquiry
  • rights, citizenship and dialogue
  • education, philosophy and culture
Back to course

Supervisors

NameAreas of expertise
Dr Paul Adams
  • education policy
  • pedagogy
  • PSHE and citizenship
  • educational theorising
  • positioning theory

Dr Laela Adamson

  • language-in-education policy and practice in sub-Saharan Africa and other postcolonial contexts
  • the Capability Approach
  • education and international development policy and practice
  • education and social justice
  • diversity, recognition and belonging in UK schools, including decolonisation of the curriculum

Dr Celia Antoniou

  • second/foreign language pedagogy
  • TESOL student/teacher agency and motivation
  • TESOL teacher training/development
  • L2 curriculum and materials development
  • L2 learning technologies
Dr Lorna Arnott
  • early years education and early experiences
  • young children and technology (digital childhoods - particularly young children)
  • innovative methodologies (particularly consulting with children and child-centred approaches)
  • creative play and young children's creativity
  • young children's peer cultures and social play
Dr Farid Bardid
  • motor development and learning
  • health-related factors of children’s motor skills and physical activity (esp. psychosocial and cognitive factors)
  • developmental trajectories of health (esp. motor skills and physical activity)
  • pedagogy in physical activity, physical education and sports 
  • development and evaluation of movement programmes
Dr Ingeborg Birnie
  • Gaelic (medium) education
  • language policy in education
  • minority languages in education
  • bilingualism in education and society
  • language learning and teaching (including CLIL)
Dr Claire Cassidy
  • philosophy with children/practical philosophy
  • children and childhood studies 
  • human rights education/children's rights
  • children's voice, participation, and citizenship
  • inquiry and critical thinking 
Prof John Davis
  • early childhood
  • inclusion
  • disability
  • integrated working
  • social justice
  • anti-discrimination and rights. 
Dr Angela de Britos
  • bilingualism and bilingual education
  • biculturalism and cultural studies
  • English as an additional language/ ESOL
  • immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers
  • teaching and learning of modern (foreign) languages
Prof Jonathan Delafield-Butt
  • autism, infant and child development
  • intersubjectivity, embodiment, social and emotional development
  • serious games in learning and assessment
  • machine learning and data science analytics
  • interdisciplinary research between engineering, psychology, psychiatry, and education
Dr Jane Essex
  • STEM education
  • inclusion/ disability
  • outreach
  • teacher education
Dr Jonathan Firth
  • memory, metacognition and teacher professional learning
  • evidence-informed approaches to learning, study skills, and assessment
  • use of field experiments, metacognition research, meta-analysis and systematic review
  • teaching of school (pre-tertiary) psychology, including online teaching
  • the psychology of learning, including learning theories
Dr Katja Frimberger
  • informal art-making practices (film & theatre) and education
  • phenomenological research into pedagogical practice - with the aim to understand the lived experience of education (as embodied, relational, spatial practice)
  • philosophical/methodological questions around the arts in/as education
Dr Navan Govender
  • critical literacies
  • multiliteracies, multimodalities and critical visual literacies
  • transmodality
  • gender and sexual diversity in representation
  • critical (multimodal) discourse analysis
  • social semiotics
  • social justice education

Dr Amy Hanna

  • student voice under article 12 UNCRC
  • participatory pedagogy
  • children's Rights
  • rights-based methods
  • children's Rights theory
Dr Alan Huang
  • second/foreign language learning and teaching
  • metacognition and learning
  • teacher professional learning
  • educational technology
  • TESOL and applied linguistics
Dr Sharon Hunter
  • educational studies
  • Sada and Surrealism, queer theory, and the work of Georges Bataille
  • inclusion, human rights and social sustainability
Dr Mariya Ivancheva
  • higher education, leadership and management
  • academic and teaching labour
  • digital education and automation
  • gender/race/class/intersectional inequalities and social justice in education
  • global historical and geopolitical topics in education including socialist/alternative experiments

Dr Thomasz John

  • TESOL and intercultural communication
  • globalisation/internationalisation of higher education
  • global English and English as a medium of instruction
  • social justice in English language teaching
  • curriculum and materials development in second language education
Dr Karsten Kenklies
  • LGBT issues in educational theory (conceptual or historical non-empirical research)
  • intercultural comparison in educational theory (conceptual or historical non-empirical research)
  • hermeneutic pedagogy (conceptual or historical non-empirical research)
  • aesthetics & educational theory (conceptual or historical non-empirical research
  • Japanese education (conceptual or historical non-empirical research)
Prof David Kirk
  • curriculum development and change
  • curriculum history
  • models-based practice in physical education
  • Bernstein and the social production of pedagogic discourse 
Dr Markus Klein
  • social inequalities in education
  • child development
  • social mobility
  • comparative research
  • secondary data analysis  
Dr David Lewin
  • philosophy of education
  • technology and education (conceptual and philosophical approaches particularly)
  • religion, spirituality and education
  • mindfulness and contemplative practices
  • ethics, values, virtues and moral education 
Dr Joan Mowat
  • social and emotional behavioural difficulties
  • inclusion and inclusive practice
  • school climate and ethos promoting positive relationships, school discipline, motivation, self-esteem, self-efficacy, resilience, socio-economic disadvantage, marginalisation, stigmatisation and labelling
  • issues around marginalisation, stigmatisation and labelling
  • educational leadership
Joanna McPake
  • bilingualism and bilingual education
  • language learning and teaching
  • Gaelic-medium education
  • minority language revitalisation
  • language education policy  
Dr Zinnia Mevawalla
  • social inclusion in early childhood
  • inclusive education in the early years
  • social justice education in early childhood
  • resistance and dignity work in the early years
  • critical qualitative research methods for listening to children
Dr Iain Moore
  • STEM Education
  • management and leadership
  • pupil leadership
  • digital pedagogy
Dr Stavros Nikou
  • learning technologies
  • mobile and ubiquitous learning
  • technology acceptance
  • teacher digital competencies
  • STEM education
Professor João M Paraskeva
  • educational theory, policy and reform
  • critical theory
  • anti-colonial and decolonial theories
  • identity, inclusion, difference and equity
  • advanced/itinerant curriculum theory
  • higher education
Professor Ian Rivers
  • equalities/diversity
  • mixed methods
  • bullying and harassment
  • health and education
  • children's understanding of politics

Dr Nicola Robertson

  • education in, and through, objects of popular culture
  • expressions of fandom and identity formation/self-reflection
  • philosophy of education (particular interest in francophone philosophy)
  • education and philosophies of technology 
  • robotics and artificial intelligence (current and speculative uses in education)
Dr Anna Robinson
  • autism, disability and mental health
  • trauma
  • empathy informed approaches to practice
  • expressive and creative arts for self-representation
  • autistic voice, rights, inclusion

Professor Carol Robinson

  • children and young people's voices, experiences and participation
  • children and young people's rights and human rights education 
  • the translation of the UNCRC into policy and practice
  • children as researchers
  • student engagement in higher education
Dr David Roxburgh
  • the teaching of Mandarin Chinese as second/ third language in Scottish primary schools
  • the teaching of Chinese culture in Scottish primary schools
  • comparative education with a Chinese/ Scottish focus
  • study abroad experiences of student teachers
  • the promotion of STEM learning in the primary school
Dr Rebekah Sims
  • mixed-methods research
  • TESOL
  • practitioner enquiry
  • culturally sustaining pedagogies
Dr Edward Sosu
  • socioeconomic disadvantage and educational trajectories
  • developmental trajectories in childhood
  • teacher beliefs and teacher effectiveness
  • quantitative methods
Prof Yvette Taylor
  • sexuality (including identities, citizenship)
  • gender
  • class (identities, spaces, inequalities, cultures)
  • religion
  • educational inequalities (especially gender, class, sexuality, religion)
Prof Kate Wall
  • school-university research partnership
  • student perspectives on all aspects of education
  • visual methodologies (especially for eliciting the views of young children)
  • innovative pedagogies for developing metacognition
  • professional learning through practitioner enquiry
Dr Yuchen Wang
  • inclusion and diversity in education
  • student/pupil voice
  • international development
  • technology
  • research engagement and impact
Back to course

Support & development

The Graduate School

The Graduate School is a friendly and supportive study environment for research students studying subjects within Humanities & Social Sciences.

Our staff will support you through your studies and you'll become part of a community of students who get involved with our workshops, seminars and competitions.

Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development (PgCert RPD)

Our PgCert RPD programme aims to ensure you get the most out of your current research activities at Strathclyde and helps you prepare for your future career as a researcher.

We'll help you recognise and develop your transferrable skills that'll have a positive impact on your research, now and in the future.

Careers

The University Careers Service can help you with everything from writing your CV to interview preparation. Take a look at our careers service pages to get more information.

Student support

From financial advice to our IT facilities, we have a wide range of support for all students here at Strathclyde. Get all the information you need at Strathlife.

International students

We've a thriving international community with students coming here to study from over 140 countries across the world. Find out all you need to know about studying in Glasgow at Strathclyde and hear from students about their experiences.

Visit our international students' section

Postgraduate research at the Strathclyde Doctoral School

The Strathclyde Doctoral School provides a vibrant and comprehensive student-centred research and training environment in order to grow and support current and future research talent.

The School encompasses our four faculties and is committed to enriching the student experience, intensifying research outputs and opportunities, and ensuring training is at the highest level. As a postgraduate researcher, you'll automatically become a member of the Strathclyde Doctoral School.

Find out more about the Doctoral School

Back to course

Apply

You can apply for a postgraduate research degree at any point in the year. We strongly advise that you contact one or more potential supervisors or the Postgraduate Research Director, Professor Kate Wall, before completing the online application. Go to the supervisors tab above and see below for further information.

Entry requirements

Normally, a Masters degree from a recognised academic institution and at least one year of full-time experience (or equivalent) in a professional field with an educational dimension.

The application

During the application you'll be asked for the following:

  • your full contact details
  • transcripts & certificates of all degrees
  • proof of English language proficiency (IELTS 6.5 in writing & reading required) if you're applying as an international student
  • two references, one of which must be academic
  • funding or scholarship information
  • research proposals of 1,500 to 2,000 words in length, detailing the subject area & topic to be investigated

By filling these details out as fully as possible, you'll avoid any delay to your application being processed by the University.

Supervisors

You'll need to identify your research supervisor before you finalise your application, preferably as soon as possible.

When you've identified a potential supervisor, based on how well your research interests match theirs, drop them an email to introduce yourself. In the email, make sure you attach a draft of your research proposal along with a copy of your CV. Don't worry about how rough your research proposal may be at this stage – you'll have help from The Strathclyde Institute of Education to refine it. If your chosen supervisor is available to work with you, they'll confirm this and nominate a potential second supervisor. As soon as a second supervisor is confirmed, an offer of study will be sent to you through Pegasus, our online application system.

When you accept our offer, you'll receive a full offer in writing via the email address you provide. 

Accepting an offer

Once you've accepted our offer, we'll need you to fulfil any academic, administrative or financial conditions that we ask.

UK or EU students

If you're applying as a UK or EU student, you'll then be issued with your registration documentation.

Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Education

PhD
part-time
Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Education

MPhil
part-time
Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Education

PhD
full-time
Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Education

MPhil
full-time
Start date: Oct 2023 - Sep 2024

Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Education

PhD
part-time
Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Education

MPhil
part-time
Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Education

PhD
full-time
Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Education

MPhil
full-time
Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Education

PhD
part-time
Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Education

MPhil
part-time
Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Education

PhD
full-time
Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Education

MPhil
full-time
Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Back to course

Contact us

The Strathclyde Institute of Education

Graduate School

Telephone: +44 (0)141 444 8400

Email: hass-edu-pgr@strath.ac.uk