Master of Education

Programme Structure

Students are required to complete a total of 60 credits to be eligible for the award of the MEd degree, following either the Specialist Strand or the Generalist Strand as depicted below. Over enrolment is not allowed.

Compulsory core course -- Educational Issues and Research (6 credits) comprises key educational concepts and issues, and provides an introduction to educational research. The course enables students to critically examine key educational issues from different perspectives and equips students with basic research knowledge to understand research evidence and engage in research or evidence-informed practice. All students are required to complete the compulsory core course.

Specialist courses (6 credits each) comprise the specialist knowledge areas. Each specialism in the Specialist Strand has 4 specialist courses. Students are required to complete all these courses to be eligible to graduate with that specialism. The specialist courses on offer will vary in each academic year. There is no specialist course for the Generalist Strand.

Specialist/general electives (6 credits each) allow students to pursue more in-depth understanding of the specialisms, and provide students with the opportunity to study areas that they are interested in or that are relevant to their profession or research, so as to broaden their knowledge and general appreciation of education. The elective courses on offer will vary in each academic year.

Capstone (12 credits) provides students with an opportunity to demonstrate their achievement of the programme learning outcomes. Students can choose to do a research project or a professional portfolio as their capstone. Students doing a research project are required to conduct research on a topic of their choice, and required to take one of the electives related to "Advanced Research Methods" course; those doing a professional portfolio are required to demonstrate how they could apply what they have learned on the programme to practices, and then evaluate and reflect on such practices.

Please refer to the Regulations and Course Descriptions in the archive for the course descriptions of the specialist and elective courses: https://www4.hku.hk/pubunit/drcd/archives.

Mode of Study

Full-time students can complete the programme in one academic year, or may extend the study to no more than two consecutive academic years. Part-time students can complete the programme in two academic years, or may extend the study to no more than four consecutive academic years.

The compulsory core course involves 36 teaching hours comprising mass lectures and tutorials. Other courses have 24 lecture hours each. Lectures/tutorials are generally held on weekday evenings starting from 6:00 pm or 6:30 pm, and occasionally on Saturday mornings or afternoons. Students are also required to learn through self-directed study, active participation in e-forums and other interactive networks or study groups, intensive reading, assignments and out-of-class activities. Lectures and tutorials will be delivered face-to-face.