Education, Practice and Society UCL

Overview

The Department of Education, Practice and Society has a range of innovative, research-active staff able to supervise post-graduate research in the following areas: 

• international development; 
• sociology of education; 
• history of education; 
• philosophy of education; 
• higher education; 
• comparative education; 
• post-14 education.

We also have a number of research centres including the Centre for Global Youth; Centre for Research on Learning and Life Chances (LLAKES); Philosophy at the Institute; the Centre for the Sociology of Education and Equity; the Centre for Education and International Development (CEID); the Centre for Higher Education Studies (CHES); the Centre for Post-14 Education and Work; the International Centre for Historical Research in Education (ICHRE); and jointly the Centre for Engineering Education.

What this course will give you

IOE is a world-leading centre for research in education and related social science. We host the UK's largest doctoral cohort in these areas. 

In the QS World University Rankings by Subject (2023), the institute was ranked first for education for the tenth year running, ahead of Harvard, Stanford, Oxford and Cambridge.

 In the UK's recent Research Excellence Framework (2021), we were ranked first for research strength and research power in Education, according to the Elsevier REF 2021 Results Analysis Tool. We attract extensive research funding each year and host many prestigious research centres and projects.

Employability

Department of Education, Practice and Society doctoral graduates progress to careers in education, university teaching, educational research, and policy and curriculum development. They can be found in almost every occupational field, and there are a wide variety of career paths.

Networking

The Department of Education, Practice and Society pioneers research collaborations with external partners to diversify the contribution that educational research can make academically, professionally and practically for individuals and communities. 

Here at University College London (UCL) we also strive to provide solutions to current and emerging pressure points in societies, such as economic change and social injustice, by creating networks and partnerships to support knowledge transfer between education, work and communities.