The minimum requirement for entry to this programme is a second class Bachelor’s degree from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard. We welcome applicants from a range of academic and professional backgrounds. Some have a background in philosophy or a related discipline; others have relevant professional experience in education. What matters most is a genuine interest in exploring educational issues through philosophical enquiry.
The course provides students from a variety of academic backgrounds with a broad literacy across different philosophical literatures and approaches. It develops students as active and independent philosophical researchers, able to bring philosophical thinking and methods to bear on a range of practical, policy-based and theoretical problems.
The course teaches students skills that are transferrable to a vast array of career opportunities. These include analytical and critical skills on how to identify relevant information from both academic and non-academic sources, including those that have traditionally been ignored due to sexist, racist and ableist bias; how to analyse and engage critically with an interdisciplinary and global literature in order to generate original and sophisticated arguments; how to apply general philosophical and social scientific theories to understand specific, real-life problems in education, such as pedagogical challenges in the classroom; how to respect, understand and assess a plurality of methodologies in the social sciences and humanities and value them within the context they were generated; how to communicate arguments effectively and confidently in writing and orally to both academic and non-academic audiences; and how to collaborate with others in research.
The course runs a careers and employability series where students can learn how to apply philosophical skills to potential careers, including having a session with philosophers of education who work in both educational practice and policy related careers
The course teaches students to develop analytical and critical skills, in addition to precise writing, communication, research and collaborative skills. These skills support competencies that have a significant impact on employability. Graduates of this course are currently working across a broad range of areas, including as teachers and senior school leaders, as university lecturers and doctoral researchers, in government, as researchers in policy think tanks, and as youth workers. The course ensures that students are informed about career information sessions that UCL offers. All students are assigned a personal academic tutor who is able to advise on career options and support.
Alumni of this course include head teachers and principals, secondary education, special needs education and further education teaching professionals, foreign language teachers, education managers, education advisers and school inspectors, barristers and judges, and business sales executives ( Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of graduates in the 2018–2024 cohorts).
IOE has been ranked the world’s number one research institute in education for 13 years in a row by QS ranking (2026) and the Centre for Philosophy of Education draws together research from across IOE, in additional to its collaboration with a range of national and international partners. Students benefit from being introduced into these collaborations that offer opportunities to engage with broader academic and research networks.