Education with Foundation Year

Education studies is the systematic academic examination of what education is, how it works, and what it is for. It draws on sociology, psychology, history, philosophy, and policy analysis to examine how educational systems are organised, how learning occurs, how inequalities are reproduced or challenged through schooling, and how the purposes of education are contested across cultures and political traditions. Studying education at degree level is not the same as training to teach, but it provides an intellectually rigorous foundation for a wide range of roles in and around education, and for those who subsequently pursue professional training.

At Keele this four-year full-time programme includes a foundation year for students who benefit from additional preparation before the main degree. Across the programme you will explore contemporary challenges in education, developing the advanced transferable skills in communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving that educational professional roles demand. The programme is designed to support students heading in a range of directions: those who want to work in schools and later pursue teaching qualifications, those interested in youth work in community settings, those considering educational psychology, and those who want to shape educational policy at a systemic level.

The breadth of the programme reflects the genuine range of career possibilities that education studies opens.

Graduates of education studies programmes find careers across the full landscape of educational and related professional contexts. Teaching, youth work, educational psychology, school counselling, policy analysis, community education, charity sector roles, and educational publishing and research are all accessible from this foundation. Many graduates also continue to postgraduate initial teacher training, educational psychology, or social work qualifications, or pursue master's degrees in education policy, special educational needs, or related fields.