MA Educational Leadership (online)
Course Overview
This fully online course is ideal for current and aspiring educational professionals who are seeking to deepen their understanding of leadership within educational settings. It is particularly suitable for individuals who wish to critically engage with national and international developments in educational leadership, explore ethical and research-informed practices, and develop the skills necessary to lead learning communities effectively.Whether you are a teacher, school leader, policy maker, or working in a broader educational context, this programme supports your professional growth through reflective practice, collaborative learning, and the application of theory to real-world challenges. The course is also well-suited for those aiming to enhance their career prospects by gaining a master’s-level qualification grounded in both academic rigour and practical relevance.
Highlights
- Our students are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds. Sharing the individual and unique educational insights and perspectives of your peers helps to enrich your learning experience.
- We promote research and critical enquiry, helping you learn to make sound, evidence-based, independent judgements.
- You will have the chance to develop enhanced key skills in line with your personal and professional development needs; for instance, autonomy, and professional accountability in relation to educational leadership and in leading learning communities.
- We will support you as you learn to critically reflect on and evaluate your own leadership skills, and develop innovative solutions for improvement considering national and local contextual influences.
- Intensive use of learning technologies and multimedia resources, such as virtual learning environments and eLearning tools, enhances your ICT skills and raises your awareness of resources from across the educational spectrum.
Key Features
- The MA in Educational Leadership enables students to understand local, national, and global leadership challenges and develop the leadership skills needed to address them. The students will approach the programme from a critical and reflective stance and will explore how educational data can be understood and interpreted, how to present data to a team, and how to work collaboratively and collegially with all stakeholders.
- An anchor module at the start of the programme aids orientation, integrates students, provides foundational knowledge, enhances research skills, and offers networking opportunities. It lays the groundwork for personalised learning, setting students up for success in their advanced studies.
- The programme is delivered by an experienced, enthusiastic and supportive team of dedicated experts in the field.
- Modules are delivered and informed by a research-active academic team with substantial experience in a wide range of educational contexts.
- The programme adopts a learner-centred approach, with a focus on students’ critical reflection on their own experience and the implications for their professional growth.
- Students will enjoy a high level of support.
Entry Requirements
- Normally, you will have at least an upper second class (2.1) honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject, and appropriate work experience.
- Your application form must be accompanied by a 250-word reflective statement. Your statement should include information about your professional teaching experience and the area(s) you wish to research during your master's-level project.
- Two references highlighting your potential to produce master's-level (level 7) academic work will be required. In particular, we need information about your professional teaching experience, so please encourage your referees to provide this information if they are able to.
- We may wish to interview you as part of the application process. This may be on an open day, over the telephone, or via video conferencing.
- The Professional Project module, EDM7777, offers course members the opportunity to undertake an in-depth investigation of an educational topic or issue that is of particular interest and relevance to their professional work and development. It is crucial that you have access to a person, or persons, who will act as participants for the research.
- We'll also consider applications where appropriate work experience can be demonstrated in lieu of, or in addition to, the published academic qualifications in line with the University’s Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning (RPEL) procedures.
- As this is an online course, you'll need access to a computer with the appropriate software and accessories, including a webcam, microphone, and a sufficient broadband connection. You'll also need basic IT skills. In particular, you'll need to be able to access and use the University's virtual learning environment, Moodle. Please contact the programme leader for details if you are uncertain that you'll be able to meet these requirements.
- If English isn’t your first language, you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.
Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.
Career Opportunities
Graduates of the MA in Educational Leadership are well-positioned for a variety of leadership and management roles across the education sector.
By the end of the course, we anticipate that you will have developed reflective and critical capabilities, alongside the necessary knowledge and skills to respond to a variety of educational leadership challenges within your organisation. As a graduate of a master’s degree from the University of Greater Manchester, you will also possess a number of career-enhancing skills, such as interpersonal skills, research skills, oral and written skills, and the ability to work independently.
What can I do with this qualification?
Alternative career options
Graduates can also use the qualification as a stepping-stone into a range of other careers. Some of these roles may require relevant experience and/or postgraduate study. Some of these careers include:
- Educational charity work
- Educational policy
- Quality and inspection
- Training
- Lecturing
- Social Work
- Educational consultancy
- Local government
Fees & Funding
Home/EU Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
International Fees
No fee information is currently available, please contact the University of Bolton’s Academic Fees team by emailing AcademicFees@bolton.ac.uk for more information.
Bursaries
Click here for more information on our Master's Bursaries.
Important note regarding tuition fees: EU nationals who meet residency requirements (have settled or pre-settled status) may be eligible for 'Home' fee status. If you do not meet these residency requirements, overseas fees will apply. Irish citizens living in the UK or Ireland will be eligible for 'Home' fee status under the Common Travel Area arrangement. Please read the student finance for EU students web page on www.gov.uk for information.
The fees for a student's course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.
How to apply
Home Applicants
You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:
You should have to hand:
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Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
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Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
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Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
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Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
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Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference
Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.
Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.
If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions-team@bolton.ac.uk
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Apply online: University of Bolton MA Educational Leadership (online) - 22 September 2025
International Applicants
The University welcomes applications from international students from all over the world. We try to make the application process as simple and as fast as possible for our international applicants.
How you apply is determined by your current location and what you are choosing to study:
- Apply direct to the University. Links for the next available intakes of this course are shown below. Please click the link which will direct you to the online application form. Please read the user guidance before completing this.
- Apply via one of our approved in-country referral partners. A list of our partners may be found on the International pages of this website.
- Apply via UCAS for courses starting in September only – visit www.ucas.com.
Should you have any queries please contact the International Team on +44 (0) 1204 903110 or email international@bolton.ac.uk
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Apply online: University of Bolton MA Educational Leadership (online) - 22 September 2025
Teaching & Assessment
Our aim is to deliver a stimulating and engaging programme of study to help you broaden and deepen your knowledge and develop the essential skills to study at Master’s level (HE7). You will participate in a course that offers diverse learning and teaching approaches which are stimulating, personalised and inclusive, and which are informed by reflection, evaluation and scholarship. These fully online activities include lectures, presentations, seminars, workshops, collaborative task presentations, and group and individual tutorials. The programme curriculum embeds a wide range of assessment methods and effective feedback strategies, including peer and tutor feedback.
Your learning journey will be supported by the intensive use of a virtual learning environment (VLE) that will support engaging learning activities, enable communication and collaboration, and support real-time formative assessment. In addition, you will undertake a significant amount of personal and independent study for general and subject-specific reading, critical research in relevant topics, preparing for seminar and individual/group tasks and working on assignments. Early in your studies, guidance will be provided on how you can make the best use of this time.
We recognise that you are extending your previous professional practice in education to enhance your professional knowledge and skills for your current as well as future professional roles. Whilst studying on the programme, you will be encouraged to reflect critically on your educational practice, to seek out evidence to evaluate it carefully and to suggest innovative solutions. This programme adopts a fully online delivery.
Assessment tasks are linked to the learning outcomes of each module and are completed before the end of the module. Module assessments typically involve written coursework, oral presentations, time-constrained activities, and portfolios. Formative assessment, which does not contribute to the final mark, is given to help the student improve their work. Feedback may be given verbally/written/online. Feedback for summative assessment, which does contribute towards the final result, is normally given in writing to the student, with the opportunity for the student to receive a more detailed verbal explanation.
Modules
The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.
- Anchor Module
- Emerging Horizons in Educational AI: Ethics, Integration, and Leadership
- Leading Learning Communities
- Critical Enquiry and Reflection
- Professional Project
Assessment methods
| Level | Assessment method |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Coursework 100% |
Learning Activities
| Level | Activity |
|---|---|
| Level 1 | Guided independent study 75% Scheduled learning and teaching activities 25% |
The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.
