Program Overview

You’ll explore education from many theoretical and ideological perspectives in your core modules. This in-depth knowledge of the education industry, combined with your specialist subject knowledge, gives you that all-important edge when you embark on your professional education career.

Secondary Education

A warm welcome to Education Secondary at Bath Spa University

Education Secondary is taken as a combined honours award in education studies. It is ideal if you have the ambition and prerequisites (see entry requirements) to become a secondary school teacher.

Education Secondary develops your knowledge, critical understanding and skills needed to explore education in a variety of ways and become change makers of the future. It enables you to appreciate what education is for, how it is constructed and how it succeeds or fails in its aims. As such, it is not ‘teacher training’ or a ‘theory.’ It is a course that helps you understand education and schooling from a variety of viewpoints informed by theory, practice and research. It will help you understand your place in teaching and give you an excellent preparation to embark on one of our post-graduate teacher training courses

The programme places you in secondary classrooms in each year of your degree. It also offers you placement in other educational contexts, including opportunities for international visits and study abroad. Education Secondary is combined with your other chosen academic subject e.g. biology. At the end of the programme you have the option to continue onto our Secondary PGCE course in your subject specialism; Primary PGCE or to apply for alternative routes into teaching.

We will offer you personalized academic support. Each year you will have an academic tutor who will help you identify your academic strengths and how to build on these. In addition, we work closely with our Careers and Employability team who offer support and advice about future careers opportunities and the application processes for initial teacher training.

You can also take this programme as a 'sandwich' degree, studied over 4 years.  This includes a Professional Placement Year module, taken in the education sector. The placement year is usually taken after you have completed year two of your degree. During this time you will be able to apply knowledge gained during your studies in a work environment.

Biology

The programme is designed to enable you to become a professional Biologist with a range of specialist routes within the overall framework.  The single honours Biology degree gives you core knowledge and skills in topics such as microbiology, ecology, epidemiology, animal behaviour, medical biology, plant biology and food studies. This particularly suits students that have a broad interest in Biology and wish to maintain this throughout their degree, perhaps with an interest in teaching or increasing the range of employment open to them on graduation.

Our specialist pathway in Conservation Biology offers a more focussed programme of study enabling you to develop your skills in applied aspects of wildlife conservation. You will study topics related to biodiversity, ecology and environmental management. At final year level you will learn more about animal behaviour and environmental practices.  Our degree will stand you in good stead for a practical focussed career in environmental/ecology consultancy or research or further study in conservation.

The specialist pathway in Human Biology has a particular emphasis on health, well-being and nutrition. In addition to the compulsory modules you have the opportunity to investigate physiology, regulation and nutrition alongside disease mechanisms and microbiology, in the second year. At final year level you will find out more on the medical aspects of human biology, as how diseases are diagnosed and treated, and the importance of nutrition and exercise in maintaining human health.

The specialist pathway in Microbiology has a particular emphasis on understanding the microbial world and its applications to health, the environment and biotechnology. You will begin with an introduction to microbiology covering bacteria, viruses, fungi and algae and some protozoa, learning about their structure and function. In the second year you will focus more on the applied aspects of the topic, including antibiotic resistance, bioremediation, environmental and human microbiota, and biotechnology. At final year level you will find out more on the medical aspects of Microbiology and its importance in the food industry.