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Education at Cambridge allows you to study the meaning, purpose, and effects of education and learning.
In the 21st Century, education is a central concern. It affects the lives of people around the world. On this interdisciplinary course, you will examine how education shapes individuals and society. You'll explore topics like Psychology, Sociology, Politics, Philosophy, Literature and Drama.
Overview
Number 1 in the UK for Education (The Complete University Guide 2026)
Education at Cambridge
Education is one of the most important of all human activities. Yet many widely held assumptions about it go unscrutinised and little understood.
On the Education course, you'll study educational practices, institutions and ideas in depth. To do this you'll consider these areas from a diverse range of perspectives. We will offer you a grounding in different disciplinary approaches in the study of education.
You will have the opportunity to specialise in one or more areas of interest. The course is flexible, so you can choose to:
- follow an existing pathway within the course
- follow your own pathway (based on papers available)
- study a variety of areas of interest throughout the course
For example, the course allows you to explore or develop specialist knowledge in areas like:
- Education and psychology
- History of educational ideas
- Philosophy of education
- Education policy and international development
- Children's literature
- Theatre performance
The Education course will prepare you to go into:
- a wide range of graduate jobs in and outside the education sector
- a wide range of Master's and doctoral research programmes
- teacher training in primary education
Teaching and facilities
Teaching
Our Faculty is home to some of the world's leading scholars of education. You'll be taught by academics with a range of expertise across this wide-ranging field.
Facilities
The Faculty of Education has excellent resources and facilities within a purpose-built building, designed to support teaching, learning and research.
Our facilities include:
- the Faculty of Education library that houses an extensive collection of material on education and related fields
You'll also have access to the impressive Cambridge University Library, one of the world’s oldest university libraries.
Watch the video to find out what a day in the life of a Cambridge Education student is like:
Course costs
When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).
Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students.
Find out more about general study costs.
Other additional course costs for Education are detailed below. If you have any queries about resources/materials, please contact the Faculty.
Field trips
- Years 2 and 3: Compulsory theatre trips - the Faculty pay for travel and tickets, with students asked to cover a small amount of up to £10.
Printing
- Cost per 20 sheets, black and white, £1.
- Estimated printing cost per year £5.
Other costs
- If you choose to carry out research in a school, you may have to pay for an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Estimated cost £55.
Careers and graduate options
You'll gain a wide range of transferrable skills throughout your degree including research, critical thinking, analytical and essay-writing skills. This means that career options for graduates are extremely varied. You will be well-equipped to find employment in a wide range of occupations in the UK and abroad.
As well as further study and teaching, our students have gone into:
- research
- educational psychology and neuroscience
- teaching
- communication
- publishing
- performing arts
- journalism
- law
- educational leadership
- the Civil Service
Other graduates now work in:
- government policy and administration
- the media
- theatre
- heritage and museum education
- human resources
- business and consultancy
- charities and non-government organisations
- international development
Course outline
Teaching
Teaching is provided through lectures, seminars and small-group supervisions.
You will usually have 4 to 6 lectures and seminars, and one or 2 hours of small-group supervisions each week.
Assessment
You’ll be assessed at the end of each year. Depending on the papers studied, this will be through coursework, written examination, presentations or a combination of these.
In the third year, you will also be assessed through your dissertation.
You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams.
Year 1 (Part I)
You take 4 compulsory papers:
- Introduction to Education Systems and Disciplines
- Learning and Human Development
- Education, Creativity and Culture
- Education and Social Justice
These papers will provide you with a strong foundation to support you in a range of more specialist options in your second and third years.
Year 2 (Part IIA)
You take 2 compulsory papers:
- Designing Educational Research
- Literature Review
These papers will provide you with the foundations of Education research, in preparation for your dissertation in the third year.
You also choose 2 more papers which will build on what you studied in your first year. You can choose your own pathway through these papers which will continue into your third year.
You may choose to specialise in:
- education and philosophy
- education and psychology
- education and social justice
- education, literature and drama
If you don’t want to specialise, you can choose a range of papers that interest you.
Examples of papers that may be offered include:
- Children’s Literature
- Modernity, Globalisation and Education
- Theatre: Text and Production
- Studies in Educational Ideas
- Educational Utopias and Dystopias
- Formal and Informal Contexts of Learning
- Critical approaches to Disability
- AI and Technology in Education and Society
- Performance, Education and Society
In addition to education option papers, you can borrow one paper from another department in both your second and third year.
Year 3 (Part IIB)
You take 4 papers:
- a compulsory dissertation of 8,000 to 10,000 words which will allow you to pursue a research project into a relevant area of particular interest to you
- 3 more papers from a list of options, so you can study what interests you the most
Examples of papers that may be offered include:
- Children’s Literature
- Modernity, Globalisation and Education
- Theatre: Text and Production
- Education, Neuroscience and Society
- Studies in Educational Ideas
- Formal and Informal Contexts of Learning
- Play, Creativities and Imagination
- AI and Technology in Education and Society
- Performance, Education and Society
- Educational Utopias and Dystopias
For further information about this course and the papers you can take see the Faculty of Education website.
Changing course
It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply.
In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.
You might also have to:
- take part in an interview
- complete an admissions test
- produce some written work
- achieve a particular grade in your current studies
- do some catch-up work
- start your new course from the beginning
For more information visit the Faculty website.
You can also apply to change to:
You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you are in your second or third year of your original Cambridge course.
You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.
Entry requirements
The listed entry requirements are for entry in 2026 or deferred entry in 2027. Entry requirements for 2027 entry or deferred entry in 2028 will be published in April 2026. Check our guidance on choosing high school subjects.
Minimum offer level
A level: A*AA
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept.
We don't ask for any specific subjects to apply to Education. We recommend these subjects for a strong application:
- English (language or literature)
- History
- Languages (ancient or modern)
- Social science subjects
College entry requirements
The following Colleges usually set offers at the minimum offer level. They may sometimes ask for higher grades or an A* in a particular subject:
- Christ's
- Clare
- Downing
- Emmanuel
- Fitzwilliam
- Gonville & Caius
- Homerton
- Hughes Hall
- Jesus
- Magdalene
- Newnham
- Pembroke
- Queens'
- Robinson
- St Edmund's
- St John's
- Wolfson
The following Colleges set extra conditions for most or all offers. For example, they may make a higher offer or specify an A* in a particular subject. For more information check the College websites:
Colleges set additional offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.
IB offers
Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.
Admission assessment
There is no admission assessment for this course.
Submitted work
You will need to submit 2 pieces of written work.
What Education students have studied
Most Education students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A (67%).
Most had studied at least one of the subjects recommended above.
The rest had usually taken at least one of:
- Ancient History, Classical Civilisation, Economics, Further Mathematics, Geography, Politics, Music, Philosophy, Psychology, Religious Studies, sciences (Biology, Chemistry or Physics) or Sociology.
- Mathematics
- Psychology
The majority of students who studied IB achieved at least 43 points overall.
This information shows some of the common subjects our applicants have studied. Although these are common subject combinations, this doesn't mean they're favoured.
When you're choosing your post-16 subjects, it's most important to check whether any subjects are required for your course. You can also check our guidance on choosing your high school subjects for more information.
All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.
Next steps
Discover your department or faculty
- - The Faculty of Education website has more information about this course, facilities, people and research.
Explore our Colleges
- - A College is where you’ll live, eat and socialise. You may also have some small group teaching there, known as supervisions.
- - If you think you know which course you’d like to study, it’s time to choose a College.
Visit us on an open day
- - Get a feel for the city and the University.
- - We offer a range of events where you can find out more about Cambridge, Colleges, and your course. Many of our events are online so you can join us virtually.
Find out how to apply
- - Our admissions process is slightly different to other universities. We’ve put together a handy guide to help you apply to Cambridge.
- - Supercurricular activities are a great way to engage with your chosen subject outside of school or college.
Discover Uni
Discover Uni data
Contextual information
Discover Uni allows you to compare information about individual courses at different higher education institutions. This can be a useful method of considering your options and what course may suit you best.
However, please note that superficially similar courses often have very different structures and objectives, and that the teaching, support and learning environment that best suits you can only be determined by identifying your own interests, needs, expectations and goals, and comparing them with detailed institution- and course-specific information.
We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.
You may find the following notes helpful when considering information presented by Discover Uni.
- Discover Uni relies on superficially similar courses being coded in the same way. Whilst this works on one level, it may lead to some anomalies. For example, Music courses and Music Technology courses can have exactly the same code despite being very different programmes with quite distinct educational and career outcomes.
Any course which combines several disciplines (as many courses at Cambridge do) tends to be compared nationally with courses in just one of those disciplines, and in such cases the Discover Uni comparison may not be an accurate or fair reflection of the reality of either. For example, you may find that when considering a degree which embraces a range of disciplines such as biology, physics, chemistry and geology (for instance, Natural Sciences at Cambridge), the comparison provided is with courses at other institutions that primarily focus on just one (or a smaller combination) of those subjects.You may therefore find that not all elements of the Cambridge degree are represented in the Discover Uni data. - Some contextual data linked from other surveys, such as the National Student Survey (NSS) or the Destination of Leavers in Higher Education (DLHE), may not be available or may be aggregated across several courses or several years due to small sample sizes. When using the data to inform your course choice, it is important to ensure you understand how it has been processed prior to its presentation. Discover Uni offers some explanatory information about how the contextual data is collated, and how it may be used, which you can view here: https://discoveruni.gov.uk/about-our-data/.
- Discover Uni draws on national data to provide average salaries and employment/continuation data. Whilst starting salaries can be a useful measure, they do not give any sense of career trajectory or take account of the voluntary/low paid work that many graduates undertake initially in order to gain valuable experience necessary/advantageous for later career progression. Discover Uni is currently piloting use of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data to demonstrate possible career progression; it is important to note that this is experimental and its use may be modified as it embeds.
The above list is not exhaustive and there may be other important factors that are relevant to the choices that you are making, but we hope that this will be a useful starting point to help you delve deeper than the face value of the Discover Uni data.