Overview

Neuroscience is beginning to influence education across the world. This programme will provide you with the skills and understanding to interrogate and apply insights arising from neuroscience in education.

It is suitable for teachers and practitioners of all subjects, including teachers of children with special needs, educational psychologists, education managers, and policymakers. Students will enrich their educational thinking and practice with insights about typical and atypical learning from the sciences of the mind and brain.

The programme also provides an excellent foundation for further research, such as a PhD, that involves the ideas and methods of cognitive neuroscience in areas related to education and learning.

You will engage with the latest research literature and debates, including the most recent findings arising from the sciences of mind and brain in areas relevant to education (such as reading, attention, mathematics, language and learning disorders, autism, adolescent development, and technology, along with many other areas). You will become an active researcher who draws on findings from neuroscience, psychology, genetics, and educational research in order to carry out your own small-scale experiments and research studies, leading to the major work of your dissertation.

You will also complete a range of assignments that encourage written, graphical, and oral communication of your ideas. The programme will help you to gain confidence in making critical judgments about research findings, and in debating and discussing issues or ideas in the field of neuroscience and education.

Programme structure

Our education master's degrees give you the opportunity to select a programme of study tailored towards your interests and learning needs. The range of degrees we offer means you will be able to specialise and receive an award in a particular discipline area.

Visit our programme catalogue for full details of the structure and unit content for our MSc in Education (Neuroscience and Education). Please note that this pathway consists of core units that all students on the pathway must take and a range of optional units that students can choose from, within availability or timetabling constraints.

Alternatively, you can design your own pathway by opting not to specialise and to take those units that fit with your availability. Units can be taken from across the different specialisms and from our bank of available optional units to build a tailored programme of study, resulting in an award of MSc Education.

Entry requirements

An upper second-class honours degree or international equivalent in any discipline.

For applicants who are currently completing a degree, we understand that their final grade may be higher than the interim grades or module/unit grades they achieve during their studies.

We will consider applicants whose interim grades are currently slightly lower than the programme's entry requirements. We may make these applicants an aspirational offer. This offer would be at the standard level, so the applicant would need to achieve the standard entry requirements by the end of their degree. Specific module requirements may still apply.

We will consider applicants whose grades are slightly lower than the programme's entry requirements, if they have at least one of the following:

  • evidence of significant (minimum of 1 year in a paid role) relevant work experience in a teaching role.
  • a relevant postgraduate qualification.

If this is the case, applicants should include their CV (curriculum vitae / résumé) when they apply, showing details of their relevant work experience and/or qualifications.

See international equivalent qualifications on the International Office website.

Read the programme admissions statement for important information on entry requirements, the application process and supporting documents required.

Go to admissions statement

If English is not your first language, you will need to reach the requirements outlined in our profile level C.

Further information about English language requirements and profile levels.

Fees and funding

UK: full-time
£11,900 per year
UK: part-time (two years)
£5,950 per year
UK: part-time (three years)
£3,967 per year
Overseas: full-time
£27,200 per year

Fees are subject to an annual review. For programmes that last longer than one year, please budget for up to an 8% increase in fees each year.

More about tuition fees, living costs and financial support.

Alumni discount

University of Bristol students and graduates can benefit from a 25% reduction in tuition fees for postgraduate study. Check your eligibility for an alumni discount.

Funding for 2024/25

Further information on funding for prospective UK and international postgraduate students.

Career prospects

We offer academic and personal development opportunities to equip you for the intellectual, social and personal challenges you will encounter during your career.

Our overarching goal is to enable our education graduates to display the following characteristics:

  • equipped to demonstrate impact, excellence and distinctiveness in your chosen field;
  • visionary, imaginative, innovative, reflective and creative;
  • with high ideals and values, including a strong sense of social justice;
  • highly employable throughout the world;
  • adaptable, with the potential to be a leader in work and in the community.