Hi everyone!

I am currently looking for a Master in Education.
Apparently, the UWCN Newport has very interesting masters in this area.
Do you know anything about this University?
If so, would you reccomend it to me?
I am asking it, because I am Italian and besides the most popular English University (such as Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, etc) I don't know anything about the other ones.

Moreover, do you know any good Master in Education in any other Universities in UK?

Thanks a lot!

Belfagor

I've never heard of 'UWCN Newport'. It sounds like an FE college that has took university status by affiliating itself to a bigger university. If this is the case, it's unlikely to attract the best academics.

Thank you so much Missspasey.
Could you please tell me what the meaning of FE is?
As far as this University is concerned, there is actually one master in Education which is marked as FE.
And then there is another one, with the same noun, whitout this FE mark.
I was actually wondering what it meant...

FE means Further Education, as opposed to HE, Higher Education. Higher Education establishments are universities, Further Education establishments are colleges that offer courses to adults (usually more vocational in nature and many used to be known as polytechnics).

Lots of polytechnics and other FE colleges attained university over the past 16 years...known collectively as 'new universities'. Some of the new breed of universities provide excellent education on par or above traditional universities (many of latter are relying too heavily on their brand name these days); however, some of the 'new universities' do not have a good reputation, have very high drop out rates, and have staff that are substandard.

If I was planning to spend a lot of money on studying in the UK for a year, I'd look more towards the traditional universities or new universities that have established good names.

Lots of other universities offer MEd courses, see http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=%22master+of+education%22&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB.

Thanks a lot Missspacey,

your answer was very helpful to me.
There are really a lot of things that I don't know about University System in UK.
I also clicked on the link you put at the end of your email: it definitely contains a lot of useful info about MEd Masters.

Anyway, I was wondering, what do English students rely on when they have to select among the universities?
I mean, is there any book or research or survey you usually consult in order to be sure to choose a trustworthy university?

Having done a masters in Education I think you need to look at which side of education you want to look at, the practical side or the theoretical side. I did the latter, and that concerns the philosphy and thinking, Friere, Illich, Gramski, Marx, Rousseau, Locke, Plato, Hill, Rikowski, McLaren etc. the practical side is more classroom based and looks at other things, maybe more grounded type stuff. When you have decided which side you want to concentrate on - they are obviously not mutually exclusive, look for a few current names in the area you want to study, look at the prospectuses of the universities and see if any are at the universities you want to go to, if not, pick one where the course looks interesting - you might want to see what the library is like too in terms of books on the subject. :-)

Thank you so much Joyce!

Actually, I am very interested in the practical approach of Education.
I am looking for some masters which gives me knowledge and concepts of Leadership ad Management in Education as well as assesment techniques.
I have already seen prospectus of many universities in UK..(Newport, Plymouth, Warwick, Bath..) the fact is, all of the prospectus -more or less- seem to be quite appelaing but, you know, one thing is what is written and another thing is what is actually taught.
That's why I thought to put this question to this forum, in order to get tips and advices for good universities with Education Master in UK.
Can you suggest me any of them?


Thanks a lot!
Belfagor

A first step might be to look at the people doing the course, and then find some articles/books that they have written. Read those and see if they are in the areas you want to study. In the masters you will be covering a lot of different areas, perhaps taught by different people and you need to look at their work to see if you are thinking along the same lines as they are, not because you want to agree with everything, but it will mean that the books in the library might  reflect thier ideas (not that education seems to have a big book budget). Some universities may have an overall reputation, but this may not be in the area you are studying, same as any subject really. Choose carefully, and remember that interviews are a two way process, ask if they are interested in the areas you are interested in.

Hi Joyce!

Thank you so much for your helpful advices...at the moment I am indeed trying to find eventual articles written by some professor who run Masters I am interested in.
I do have another question regarding Master in Education and I think you might know the answer.
Most of the Masters in Education -and not only- are, basically, MA or MS.
But there are some of them which are MEd, that is Master of Education.
What's the difference between the former category and the latter?
Is the  MEd award less or more prestigious than the first two?
Or is it maybe supposed to give you another kind of knowledge, rather different from that you can achieve with the MA or MSc?

Thank you!

As far as I know the MEd is more practice based. There is also a doctorate in education (EdD)along the same lines. Both are, I think, quite new. and as far as I know both are considered to be equal value to MA/MSc and PhD respectively. As in all things, it may depend upon where you want to go with it in the future and therefore which approach would give you a more suitable grounding for future work.