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Special Educational Needs; Disabilities and Inclusion (Top-up) BA(Hons)

2025-26

Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time

About the course

Reasons to study

  1. Develop the professional skills and knowledge needed to work with children and young people with SEND.
  2. 93.4% of graduates from this subject area are in work and/or further study fifteen months after graduating.
  3. We'll prepare you to work in a range of special and inclusive educational contexts.

Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have the right to educational support that values and respects them as learners and takes account of their individual requirements. This course will support you to develop knowledge and understanding of current policy and best practice, giving you the skills you need to ensure that children and young people with SEND can thrive in any setting.

Why Special Educational Needs, Disabilities and Inclusion?

  • The course will equip you with the knowledge, understanding and skills that are essential for planning and delivering education to meet the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) within special and inclusive education settings.
  • You’ll develop an academic understanding of special and inclusive education. You’ll also develop your knowledge and understanding of inclusive educational theory related to pedagogy and practice, including knowledge of specific areas of SEND.
  • You’ll have the opportunity to analyse and evaluate the impact of national and international policy on special and inclusive education.

Course detail

Planning Your Final Year Project

This module will help you to learn how to design and conduct a final year project. It does this by exploring a range of research and design approaches, strategies and methods. The module helps you to design a project that utilises your knowledge and abilities, carry it out and evaluate its outcomes. Your final year project will focus on an empirical research, policy or practice development, documentary research, policy analysis, entrepreneurship activity, or other options in negotiation with your tutor. The module guides you towards gaining a thorough, critical understanding of project planning and evaluation, research protocols, methods, ethics and ways of doing data analysis. By the end of the module you’ll be confident and capable of designing your own rigorous and valid project.

Final Year Project

This module allows you to pursue your academic and work-related interests and to demonstrate the breadth of knowledge, understanding, and strengths that you have developed during your degree studies. You will review critical understanding of project planning and evaluation, research protocols, methods, ethics, and analysis. You will be supported in the selection of a focus for your final project, in the development of an application for ethical approval, and at each stage of your study. Your final year project will focus on an empirical research, policy or practice development, documentary research, policy analysis, entrepreneurship activity, or other options in negotiation with your tutor. This module is your opportunity to work together with a supervisor to confidently and rigorously undertake a valid project.

Critical Approaches to Inclusive Education

You will examine definitions and different understandings of inclusion and models of disability, considering a national and global context. You will explore the impact these different definitions and models have on educational policy and practice. You will critically analyse current approaches to inclusion in a range of settings. You will develop your understanding of approaches to inclusive planning, teaching and assessment that ensures accessibility, challenge and achievability for all pupils.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally one of the following:

  • A Higher National Diploma (or equivalent).
  • An initial teaching qualification from a recognised teacher education institution.
  • Successful completion of a Higher Education qualification with 120 European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits (or equivalent).

Your qualification should be in an area related to education, for example the study of special educational needs and disabilities, children’s learning and development (including atypical development).

In addition, you must also have GCSE English Language at grade 4 or above, or grade C or above if awarded under the previous GCSE grading scheme.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum of IELTS 6.0 overall with no element lower than 5.5, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page. If you have alternative qualifications or do not meet the IELTS requirement we also offer a range of Pre-Sessional English Programmes.

For further information please see the University's minimum entry requirements.

6th in the UK for Education


We’ve been ranked 6th in the UK for Education in the Guardian University Guide 2020.

We’re top of the subject rankings for education programmes in Yorkshire. The rankings confirm what we already knew - that our education courses are among the very best in the UK.

Open Days

Your career


If you aspire to work with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, this top-up degree will help you develop the professional knowledge and skills you need. The course will prepare you to work in a range of special and inclusive educational contexts.

*Percentage of graduates from this subject who are in work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating (HESA Graduate Outcomes 2019/20, UK domiciled, other activities excluded).

90-91% graduates employed*

Student support

​At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

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