BA (Hons) Education, Special Educational Needs, and Inclusion with a Year Abroad

This four-year degree empowers you to explore how education, society and culture interact through an inclusive lens—focusing especially on supporting learners with additional needs, disabilities and diverse backgrounds. With a dedicated year abroad built in, you’ll gain global experience, refine your cultural awareness, and emerge ready to lead inclusive practices in a wide range of educational settings.

Curriculum Structure

Year 1
In your first year, you’ll be introduced to the foundations of inclusive education, special educational needs (SEN), and how children and adults learn in diverse environments. You might study units such as Understanding Inclusion and SEN alongside How People Learn (or equivalent) which examine learning theory, developmental differences, and the societal structures that shape education.
You’ll also develop essential academic and research skills—preparing you to reflect critically on concepts like equity, access and difference.

Year 2
Your second year deepens into more specialised themes such as disability studies, inclusive pedagogy, intersectionality (such as how gender, race, class and ability intersect) and educational policy around SEN. Modules like Inclusive Curriculum Design and Disability, Education and Society might feature, equipping you to analyse how educational institutions support (or fail) learners with additional needs in various contexts.
This year also prepares you for the year abroad by encouraging comparative analysis of educational systems, cultures and inclusive practice internationally.

Year 3 – Year Abroad
The third year is spent studying at one of UEA’s international partner universities. This immersive year abroad gives you first-hand experience of education systems in another country, opportunities to observe inclusive learning practices, and a chance to broaden your cultural, professional and personal horizons.
During this year you’ll build independence, intercultural communication, adaptability and deepen your understanding of inclusive education in a global context.

Year 4
Returning to UEA for the final year, you’ll integrate all you’ve studied and experienced abroad. You might take advanced modules such as Contemporary Issues in SEN and Inclusion and complete an Independent Research Project focusing on inclusive education, special needs or comparative international practice.
This final stage is designed to bring together your knowledge, refined research skills and global insights—leaving you ready for professional roles or further study in inclusive and special educational needs contexts.

Focus areas:
Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), inclusive pedagogy and curriculum design, intersectionality and diversity (ability, gender, ethnicity, culture), international perspectives on inclusion, policy and practice in inclusive education.

Learning outcomes:
You will be able to critically evaluate how educational systems support diverse learners, design and adapt inclusive learning environments, lead and advocate for inclusive practices across cultural contexts, and communicate effectively in multicultural and international settings.

Professional alignment (accreditation):
While this programme does not directly lead to UK Qualified Teacher Status (QTS), it is delivered by UEA’s highly respected School of Education and Lifelong Learning, and offers strong preparation for careers in inclusive education, SEN support services, educational policy, youth/community work, therapy support, and postgraduate teacher training routes.

Reputation (employability rankings):
UEA is recognised among the UK’s leading universities for Education. For example, the course profile on The Complete University Guide lists this degree as a four-year full-time programme and highlights its link to inclusive and special educational needs.