- APPLY BY :
- NEXT START DATE :
- TOTAL FEES / PER MODULE FEES : £7,284 / £607
- COMPLETE IN AS LITTLE AS : 14 Months
Why QMU
Why QMU
Flexible online master’s programmes – full-time* and part-time options available
Study from anywhere, anytime
Per module instalment fees
Six starts per year
Top 10 in UK for Nursing**
Herald Scottish Higher Education Institute of the Year 2025***
Top 5 universities in the UK for social inclusion****
Benefit from our links to vibrant city of Edinburgh
* MA Education and Healthcare programmes only
** Guardian University Guide, 2025
*** Herald Higher Education Awards, 2025
**** Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, 2025
REQUEST INFORMATION
*The University and Higher Ed Partners (HEP) will use the details submitted on this form to contact you by phone, email, WhatsApp and SMS to understand your individual situation and requirements, and to provide you with tailored information about our online courses. The data provided will be processed on the basis of the consent provided here. Calls may be recorded for training purposes. For further information on how your data may be used, please read the HEP full privacy policy. You can alter your preferences at any time by emailing enrolments@online.qmu.ac.uk
Build education systems that work for everyone with our online MA Special and Inclusive Education degree
At QMU, you’ll deepen your understanding of inclusive education and its critical role in shaping fairer societies, outcomes, and futures.
Our 100% online MA is designed for busy professionals hoping to move into senior positions related to special and inclusive education. If you’re passionate about campaigning for equity, access, and belonging, but need to balance online learning with current commitments, this is the ideal route for you.
Why choose QMU?
Exceptional quality, online learning that works around you
Wherever you’re based in the world, and whatever area of special and inclusive education you want to work in, our QMU online programme can help. Delivered entirely online, our course has been carefully designed to fit around the busy schedules and lives of working professionals. Choose flexible online learning that supports career continuation – and ensure you don’t put your ambitions on hold.
Drive meaningful societal change through inclusive educational experiences
Through an interdisciplinary lens, you’ll explore how closely inclusive education is linked to emancipation, liberation, and true democracy.
Whatever your career ambitions, your online studies will equip you with the specialist skillset to empower and uplift individuals with complex special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Unpick structural inequalities in both society and education, analyse their impact on educational outcomes, and learn how to redesign contexts and practices to better support inclusion.
Via our interactive, virtual learning environment, you’ll engage with course content that reflects global perspectives and promotes inclusive approaches for all. Your deep, critical understanding will span key theory and research relevant to special and inclusive teaching, including how it applies to policy and practice.
Skills and knowledge you will gain
Each learning outcome of our MA Special and Inclusive Education programme sets you up to lead inclusive practice in diverse settings. As an inclusive education graduate, you'll have the confidence to apply inclusive approaches rooted in ethics, collaboration, and meaningful change.
Explore global perspectives as you understand how to design learning that supports diverse learners with wide-ranging, often-complex needs and improves wellbeing.
You'll pay close attention to how social and educational inequalities affect learners – and how effective inclusive practices can address these issues.
Gain skills in shared leadership, collaborative, and multi-agency working. Your professional approach will drive change in inclusive, sustainable educational settings that empower all learners and scaffold all learning needs.
As a reflective practitioner, you'll examine your own professional experience, values, identities and understanding of inclusion to strengthen your inclusive professional practice.
Using relevant ethical research methods and principles, you'll undertake an independent research project focused on inclusive educational practice, extending your knowledge and professional capability.
Key knowledge and skills taught on this course:
- Gain in-depth knowledge of children's and learners' rights frameworks
- Advance your advocacy and communication skills
- Design and implement inclusive environments, pedagogies, and curriculums in different educational contexts and settings
- Acquire critical understanding of inclusive and special education theories
- Understand the interrelationships between inequality, exclusion, and disability
- Employ ethical decision-making in practice and research.
See how flexible online study works and what it could do for your career
Where an MA Special and Inclusive Education can take you
As a graduate of our online MA, you’ll possess the practical skills and understanding to succeed in cross-sector roles that value inclusion, accessibility, and social justice. You’ll be well-placed to pursue meaningful professional career pathways that span education, leadership, policy, mental health, and support sectors.
Your expertise across inclusive practice and special education could lead you to work in professional contexts and roles such as:
inclusive and special education – as a Special Educational Needs (SEN) teacher or Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO)
specialist support and education – as a disability and inclusion services coordinator or behaviour/learning support specialist
education policy and leadership – as an educational consultant or policy analyst
higher education, professional development, and educational research – as a lecturer in inclusive education or special education researcher
advocacy, community, social care, and third-sector work – as a disability rights advocate or community education coordinator.
You don’t have to choose between a costly career break and investing in your employability. Our online inclusive education MA programme is flexibly designed to help you access postgraduate study around your current job.
Frequently asked questions
Do you offer any other online master's education degrees?
Yes. As well as our online MA Special and Inclusive Education, we also offer:
How long does the online MA Special and Inclusive Education programme take to complete?
All our degree programmes are designed to be completed in 24 months part-time. However, you can complete it in as little as 14 months if you wish to.
Can I pay for my online degree in instalments?
Yes. You can pay per module to help break up the cost of your programme. Each module of your MA Special and Inclusive Education degree costs £607.
Programme Modules
This module provides a broad introduction to education from a range of different theoretical, political and historical perspectives enabling you to critically analyse contemporary educational issues in your home countries and internationally.Â
The aim of the module is to provide you with a range of specialised skills and knowledge in the use of digital technologies. This module will provide a critical appreciation of how to use digital tools within educational contexts.
This module aims to introduce you to the notion of the ‘reflective practitioner’ and teachers as ‘agents of change’. Brookfield’s lenses of reflective practice are revisited as a model for developing a critically reflective questioning stance towards practice. Important issues of teacher professionalism, professional values and identity are explored through political, policy and theoretical perspectives giving you an understanding of what it means to be an ‘activist teacher’ in the 21st century. You will learn about the role of reflective practice within the wider professional development agenda, including the need for CPD over the career span and for professional learning leading to achievement of the Standard for Full Registration.
This module will introduce and explore the complex relationship between the ideals of inclusive education and the realities of educational practice. Activities will be designed to include consideration of implications for a range of stakeholders and education policy, in addition to theory and practice.
This module focuses on strategic thinking and planning to meet the challenges of the 21st century in our global world. Disruption continues to challenge even the most robust educational systems around the world and therefore school leaders will need to be prepared to face these challenges effectively. During tumultuous times we need to move beyond crisis management and engage in strategic leadership to meet the needs of learners and communities during emergencies. Therefore, you will be introduced to strategic leadership thinking and planning for times of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. You will gain a deep understanding of the role strategic leadership plays in sustaining effective teaching and learning that enhances outcomes for all learners even during the most disruptive times, but also how strategic leadership can move us beyond reactionary crisis management and develop resilient systems.
This module will provide opportunities for you to reflect upon the structural inequalities inherent in society and the education system and their impact on educational outcomes, and attempts to address them in different contexts.
This module will consider the ways that inclusion is embedded and enacted in core areas of the formal curriculum (Numeracy, Literacy, Sciences, Physical Education, Expressive Arts), with the opportunity to reflect upon the curriculum delivery and maximising opportunities for inclusion in your own practitioner context.
This module will provide opportunities for you to consider support for students with additional needs and ways to enable inclusive environments for students with a range of complex needs.
This module will provide opportunities for you to critically reflect upon the research methods used in education, as well as the duties of the researcher in terms of ethical practice, research integrity, and communication of findings.
This module will explore ethics for the social sciences and working with human participants across a variety of culturally informed social settings. You will understand the importance of ethical principles in order to protect the dignity, rights and welfare of research participants throughout the planning, organising, managing and disseminating research.
This project enables you to build upon your programme modules to develop and apply the skills of research and independent inquiry to a self-selected project which contributes insights and advances understanding to a subject, field or profession. You will be required to design and undertake a small-scale independent research project, relevant to your field of study and/or professional practice, reflecting on the application of the insights you generate. You will be required to exhibit a professional approach, academic rigour, independence, critical thought and self-direction with the input of a supervisor.
Get enrolled
Start the application process here. You have the option to either pay for your degree in full at the start, or pay per module.
The information below is required for social login
Login to your Account
JOIN FOR FREE
Let’s begin with setting up your account to keep track of your progress