MA International Education

Fees for entry in 2027 have not yet been set. For reference, the fees for the academic year beginning September 2026 were as follows:

• MA (full-time)
  UK students (per annum): £13,700
  International, including EU, students (per annum): £29,400

The fees quoted above are fully inclusive of tuition, administration and computational costs.

Fees for entry are subject to yearly review. The University reserves the right to increase your tuition fee by up to 7% each year for courses lasting more than one year, including to reflect rising costs associated with delivering our educational and wider student experience. Postgraduate fees information .

Always contact the admissions team if you are unsure which fee applies to your qualification award and method of attendance.

All students should normally be able to complete their programme of study without incurring additional study costs over and above the tuition fee for that programme. Any unavoidable additional compulsory costs totalling more than 1% of the annual home undergraduate fee per annum, regardless of whether the programme in question is undergraduate or postgraduate taught, will be made clear to you at the point of application. Further information can be found in the University's Policy on additional costs incurred by students on undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes (PDF document, 91KB).

We know that student finance can be complicated. The links below provide further information to help guide you.

• Learn more about - student finance options for UK students .
• Learn more about - fees and finance for international students .
• Graduates of The University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University can receive a 10% discount on their master's degree tuition fees as part of our Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount scheme.

The unit will explore systems of higher education in an international context. It draws on interdisciplinary literature from human geography, education, and economics to introduce key concepts for analysis. The unit explores 4 key themes in international higher education and contextualises them in a range of international case studies. A weekly blog assignment offers the opportunity to develop writing skills at postgraduate level and seminars will incorporate student-sourced materials for comparison. In addition to academic sources on the reading list, students will be expected to read a variety of professional and academic blogs which will be posted on a weekly basis.

The unit aims to:

Introduce students to key concepts in higher education studies
Develop students’ understanding of globalised systems of higher education
Enhance students’ critical awareness of issues of power and inequality in international higher education

The knowledge and understanding of global higher education supports student outcomes of expertise in a range of different educational fields, as well supporting graduates’ capacity to situate themselves in potential careers in higher education. 
The intellectual skills of analysing case studies, synthesising theoretical information, and developing a coherent analysis support student outcomes for MA graduates of being able to incorporate and connect a range of different forms of information effectively. 
The practical skills of writing for academic and non-academic audiences and communicating information in oral and written forms are essential student outcomes with career applications. 
The transferable skills support employability and workplace student outcomes, of applying research and evaluation skills to real-world dilemmas. Group-work skills support employability skills development for a range of potential careers.

Syllabus (indicative curriculum content):
Key themes include: 
1. Systems and purposes of higher education
2. Imperialism, inequalities and colonialism
3. Marketisation 
4. Mobility 
5. Quality 

The approach adopted in this unit is a mixture of didactic and participatory learning, using both online and face-to-face modes of delivery. Students will attend one 2 hour lecture every other week, and a 2 hour seminar in alternate weeks. The writing and reading of blogs on WordPress is a key learning activity for this module. 
In preparation for the lecture, students have assigned readings, which include traditional academic texts as well as selected blogs. 
In preparation for the seminars, students will write a short blog entry related to the lecture theme, in a specific case study, either a particular national, regional, local, or institutional context.
In the seminar, students will present their research in small groups and compare different national case studies in discussion. Learning technologies such as collaborative documents are used for live note-taking and building on critical insights from discussion. 
After the seminar, they will complete a blog entry in which they reflect on a key critical point, building on each others’ blogs.
Students will be grouped into writing groups of 5-6. They will be expected to read each others’ blogs within the group and comment on them constructively, generating comparison and links between case studies. 
Formative feedback will be provided collectively in seminars and via WordPress comment functions on blog entries.
Completion of guided study tasks is estimated to take 4-6 hours per week. 
Students will develop a key theme into a title for the final report, in negotiation with the tutor. 

• Understand the global context for higher education
• Identify key themes in contemporary international higher education

• Analyse and compare case studies
• Develop and sustain a coherent analysis
• Synthesise theoretical information with examples

• Write for academic and non-academic audiences
• Effectively source and communicate information in oral and written formats

• Develop research and evaluation skills
• Develop group-work and discussion skills
• Negotiate a brief

Feedback is available 15 working days after submission

Introduction, Purpose, Systems 
Zgaga P. Higher Education and Citizenship: ‘the Full Range of Purposes.’ Daniel HD, Hug SE, Ochsner M, eds. European Educational Research Journal. 2009;8(2):175-188. doi:10.2304/eerj.2009.8.2.175 
Kathryn Mohrman WM. The Research University in Transition: The Emerging Global Model. Higher Education Policy. 2008;21(1):5-27. doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300175
doi:10.1057/palgrave.hep.8300013
Bernasconi A. Is There a Latin American Model of the University? Comparative Education Review. 2008;52(1):27-52. doi:10.1086/524305

Topic 2: Imperialism & Inequalities
Aníbal   Quijano. COLONIALITY AND MODERNITY/RATIONALITY. Cultural Studies. 21(2):168-178. doi:10.1080/09502380601164353
Shahjahan RA, Morgan C. Global competition, coloniality, and the geopolitics of knowledge in higher education. British Journal of Sociology and Education. 2016;37(1):92-109. doi:10.1080/01425692.2015.1095635
Unterhalter E, Carpentier V. Global Inequalities and Higher Education: Whose Interests Are We Serving? Vol Universities into the 21st century. Palgrave Macmillan; 2010.
Jess Auerbach. What a new university in Africa is doing to decolonise social sciences. The Conversation. Published online Spring 1320:volumes. http://theconversation.com/what-a-new-university-in-africa-is-doing-to-decolonise-social-sciences-77181

Topic 3: Marketisation
Molesworth M, Scullion R, Nixon E. The Marketisation of Higher Education. (Molesworth Mike, Nixon E, Scullion Richard, eds.). Taylor and Francis; 2010. Chapter 1. 
Academic ideals are being crushed to suit private-sector style management | Higher Education Network. https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2014/feb/02/academics-management-university-private-sector
TROW M. Trust, markets and accountability in higher education: A comparative perspective. Higher Education Policy. 1996;9(4):309-324. doi:10.1016/S0952-8733(96)00029-3

Topic 4: Quality
Gunn A. Teaching Excellence? : Universities in an Age of Student Consumerism . SAGE; 2021.
Rob Cuthbert. Quality and standards in higher education Quality and standards in higher education. Published 2021. https://srheblog.com/2021/02/02/quality-and-standards-in-higher-education/https://srheblog.com/2021/02/02/quality-and-standards-in-higher-education/
Blanco-Ramírez G, B. Berger J. Rankings, accreditation, and the international quest for quality. Quality Assurance in Education. 2014;22(1):88-104. doi:10.1108/QAE-07-2013-0031

Topic 5: Mobility
Ten trends transforming international student mobility. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/blog/ten-trends-transforming-international-student-mobility
Brooks, R. and Waters, J. Geographies of student mobilities. In: Student Mobilities, Migration and the Internationalization of Higher Education. Palgrave Macmillan; 2011:114-195 
Peter Michael Kell GV. International Students in the Asia Pacific. (Vogl Gillian, ed.). Springer; 2012. https://link-springer-com.manchester.idm.oclc.org/book/10.1007%2F978-94-007-2897-4

Where Next?
Nixon J. Higher Education and the Public Good: Imagining the University. Continuum International Publishing Group; 2011.