The Department of Learning and Leadership (DLL) is a large specialist research and teaching department of approximately 130 academic staff. Our main aim is to contribute new ideas and knowledge that have the widest possible impact in order to enhance education as a research-informed academic discipline, and as a field of practice and policy. The department's research is focused on:

• the ways in which children and young people learn through the processes of teaching
• the vital role of leadership, including school leadership, in relation to learning
• experiences of children from the early years to young adulthood

• the ways in which factors such as social, cultural and political contexts relate to educational provision.

Careers

IOE doctoral graduates are found in a wide range of occupational fields. Career paths include education professionals in a wide range of settings, university research and lecturing, policy development and senior officer roles in government and NGOs, policy and professional roles in both the wider public sector (including health, youth work, international development) as well as in the private sector (including business and retail).

Employability

Students develop general and specialist skills in research methodology, academic writing and presentation, as well as experience of engaging with a wide range of practitioners across different sectors of education.

Networking

The Department of Learning and Leadership has a wide range of research seminars, where students can join discussion of our ongoing projects, as well as being the base for national and international conferences. Staff members are also significant figures in international conferences such as BERA and ECER. There are also opportunities to work with education practitioners and organisations beyond the IOE.

Why study this degree at UCL?

This MPhil/PhD programme sits within the IOE's ESRC-recognised Centre for Doctoral Education. Students have access to the wider UCL community as well as the consortium of schools and colleges constituting the Bloomsbury Doctoral Training Centre (DTC), which is led by the IOE and includes the School of Oriental and African Studies, Birkbeck, and the School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Students work closely with their supervisor(s) to develop each stage of research; supervisors also help put together a programme of additional courses and activities to support progress towards completion of the final thesis.