Master Degree in Diversity Support and Inclusive Education

The Master Degree in Diversity Support and Inclusive Education taught at the Blanquerna-URL School of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences provides specific training enabling students to innovate and breathe new life into inclusive educational practices in early childhood, primary and secondary education. This enables students to help make the school inclusive and provide specialist care to students with support needs and their families at both ordinary and specialized schools. On the other hand, the master degree also prepares students to promote and participate in lines of research/action in the field of planning and care in elementary and secondary schools.

Students are expected to develop the following specific skills by the time they finish their Master Degree in Diversity Support and Inclusive Education:

• Master conceptual aspects to understand the features of the psychological, social and linguistic development of children and young people at risk of educational and social exclusion by reason of origin, language, disability, or any other personal or family circumstances.
• Know the theoretical and epistemological reference models governing educational support for inclusive development contexts and inclusive teaching and learning, and understand how these contexts affect their personal and social development.
• Deepen their knowledge of the personal disability conditions or developmental issues of certain students and the most frequent support needs.
• Gain a deeper understanding of the aims, procedures, and tools for the psycho-pedagogical assessment of students with special educational needs, in order to allow a thorough exploration of the psychosocial and curricular skills of a child or young person within a specific context.
• Deepen their knowledge of the specific technological aids that facilitate access to information and encourage students to work independently, providing support in education.
• Know the theoretical models and resources available in the environment that can enable parents and other teaching staff to receive advice and guidance.
• Gain a deeper knowledge of the educational support tools and strategies designed to create contexts that promote students' adaptation, behavioral self-regulation, and emotional stability.
• Detect and analyze barriers to learning and the participation of children and young people in the school and community educational context, and know how to plan the supports required to promote learning.
• Guide educational intervention towards inclusive development contexts and understand how they foster personal and social development.
• Create and design resources to support the learning and participation of all children and young people in their school and community educational context.
• Plan, carry out, and assess different optimizing interventions to promote development and learning throughout the periods of compulsory schooling, as well as during the post-compulsory stages of vocational training for full personal, workplace, and social integration.

• Students will be involved in activities that they will later carry out as diversity support specialist teachers.
• The 120 hours of internships in schools are an important source of professional and personal enrichment.
• They enable students to continue developing the necessary critical skills to ask key questions for scientific research.

Our partner centers include:

CEE Taiga, IE Mar Mediterrània, Fasia-Eixample, CRE by ONCE in Barcelona, CEE Sants Innocents, CEE Llevant, Advisory team, Centre Maregassa, AMPANS, CEE Guru, CEE Gimbarda, CEIP Lavínia and IDIAPP.

The master degree thesis enables students to delve into a topic of interest and design a research project in relation to it. This work will be overseen by an advisor who will conduct follow-up tutorials at seminar sessions held in small groups to foster cooperative learning.

The master degree thesis can be written in Catalan or Spanish. However, upon a prior written request from the director, the master degree or PhD academic management team (EGA) may authorize it to be submitted in another language. In such case, a summary of the project must be provided in Catalan or Spanish.

The master degree thesis will be publicly defended before a panel made up of faculty members of the relevant master degree, some of whom must hold a PhD. Students will have ten minutes to defend their thesis. Students must prioritize the aspects of their work that they consider most relevant and summarize them clearly, precisely, and completely. After the arguments have been presented, students must respond to observations, comments, and questions from the members of the panel.

OBJECTIVES: To show the intellectual maturity and research capacity of the student. To prepare an original work, based on the student's personal work carried out with their advisor's orientation and guidance, reflecting what was learned throughout the master degree course.

The teaching-learning methodology is grouped into three modalities through which the student's competencies in the subject are addressed: in-person work, supervised work and independent work.

1. In-person work on-site in the classroom or in the virtual classroom, and internships by faculty members and students. The purpose is to guide and advise on the master degree thesis. In-person sessions will be held in order to work on methodological aspects of research, databases, writing workshops, etc. resources for sharing the bases for starting on the master degree thesis.
2. Independent work by the student. As it focuses on guidance for the thesis, this course requires individual work. The student must prepare their own thesis, presentation and panel defense. Throughout this process, the student is supported by their professor/advisor and can also request the support of the master degree faculty members.

• The assessment will be instructive and continuous. The thesis advisor will follow up with the student throughout the process and inform them of their performance regularly throughout the two semesters.
• The module will be subject to continuous assessment, demanding constant, personal involvement by the student in the scheduled activities and in the control and regulation of their individual and collective learning.
• From this perspective, students are required to be responsibly involved in work proposals and regularly attend their scheduled tutorials, and they will be monitored to ensure they are complying with both requirements. The faculty members will assess whether this commitment has been fulfilled and, if the student is deemed to have been insufficiently involved or consistently absent, they will not be permitted to undergo an assessment.

The assessment criteria for the master degree thesis are concerned with the skills consolidated during the preparation process, the final product and the defense of the thesis itself. The final grade will thus be the result of various partial assessments:

• The skills consolidated during the preparation process: grades will be given for persistence and consistency in the preparation of the project and the progress made in the acquisition of the skills and attitudes required for the research and intervention. This assessment will be performed by the project advisor or director.
• End product: the various aspects taken into account in most scientific publications will be assessed to ensure the consistency and quality of the research or intervention.
• The project director and the members of the panel will issue a report prior to the defense, which will be submitted to the Graduate Studies Committee at least one week before the public defense of the project.
• Skills achieved in the defense of the thesis: the clarity, accuracy, originality and quality of the oral presentation of the project will be assessed according to the conditions required for presentation before a panel.

• The following will be taken into account for the assessment of the master degree thesis, according to the express skills involved in the module: The suitability of the objectives and methodological design, the suitability of the topic of study and the context, as well as the follow-up carried out in Seminars (group tutorials) and individual tutorials.
• The presentation of the project (formal aspects), the quality of the theoretical references, the analysis work and the final proposal duly argued and presented.
• The exhibition and the defense of the thesis.
• The final grade for the research work will be issued by the panel in a single act.

Students can pre-enroll online (by accessing Pre-enrollment | Blanquerna or the pre-enrollment option for each course) and also in person at the school.

For online pre-enrollment, you will need to:

1. Sign up on the unique registration system and create a username (if not previously obtained) and follow the instructions to completion.
2. Make a payment of €100 (non-refundable fee for pre-enrollment rights and processing) can be made by credit or debit card, through a secure and confidential BBVA process. Alumni are exempt from payment.
3. Upload the required documentation through the document repository.

• ID card (both sides), passport or NIE residence card
• Resume

Once pre-enrollment has been completed, the candidate will be offered a date for an interview with the degree coordinator, who will assess their suitability and solve any doubts they may have about the course for which they are enrolling. Motivation, academic transcript and professional experience will be taken into account for the selection of students. Once the assessment is complete, the student will be informed of the result of the admission and how to enroll, if admitted.

Prior to enrollment, the person concerned must upload the following to the document repository the documents previously mentioned:

• Qualification or receipt of the qualification of the studies that give the student access to the master degree.
• Original official academic certificate or certified copy of the bachelor degree transcript.
• For foreign applicants: certificate issued by the relevant body (university, embassy, consulate) confirming that the studies qualify the student to undertake master degree or graduate studies in the country of issue.

Enrollment formalization is the final procedure to obtain a place in the master degree:

• The date of enrollment formalization is communicated individually to the person concerned and can be done online.
• After this, they have two business days to pay 50% of the total cost of the credits for which they have enrolled, by bank transfer or using a barcode at the bank; the remaining 50% is split into nine monthly installments, from October to June, payable by direct debit using the bank account indicated at the time of enrollment (Instructions for sending the signed SEPA document to Blanquerna).

Alumni of official qualifications from the School are given a 15% discount on the enrollment fee (non-cumulative discount) if they enroll full time and for all the credits that the qualification offers. Prices are updated each academic year. Once enrollment is complete, the amount paid will not be refunded under any circumstances.​

Students who are admitted can choose between two forms of enrollment, depending on whether they already qualify for university admission:

1. Conditional enrollment: Students who have not yet obtained a bachelor degree and who require a maximum of 9 more credits and/or the thesis yet to do can apply for this. For conditional enrollment, students must be enrolled for the outstanding credits for their bachelor degree.
   Unless the student has passed the bachelor degree giving them access, they will not be able to defend the thesis and, therefore, will not be able to obtain the master degree.
   To be eligible for this option, the person concerned must sign this information document in which they agree to the particularities of conditional enrollment.
2. Final enrollment
   Final enrollment is when the person concerned has completed the admission pathway for the university master degree.

When a student enrolls, a contract for the provision of teaching services is formalized between the student and the Blanquerna Foundation, which is legally binding from the time of payment. Payment includes the corresponding insurance and, for students under the age of twenty-eight, compulsory academic insurance. If a student declines to take up a place, he/she will lose in full any amount he/she has paid.

The student accepts the rules for the use of computer services established by the Blanquerna Foundation. The student's personal data will be included in an automated file under the responsibility of the Blanquerna Foundation, so that this contract can be maintained and fulfilled. Students should note that their data may also be used to inform them about the future activities of the Foundation, or for the institution to send them publications.

In accordance with the provisions of Organic Law 15/1999 on the protection of personal data, students have the right to access their data to update, rectify or cancel them, or object to their use, by sending a letter, indicating which right they want to exercise.

This section is a summary of the general conditions for enrollment. It is only for guidance and therefore has no contractual value. In the event of any discrepancy, the provisions of the general conditions for enrollment specified in the receipt generated at the time of enrollment will prevail; this receipt formalizes the contract between the student and the Blanquerna Foundation; students can consult it on the intranet whenever they wish.

The School cannot guarantee that a course will be available if the requirement for a minimum number of enrollments is not met. In this case, the amount paid for enrollment and pre-enrollment will be refunded in full.

The School reserves the right to ask candidates with qualifications obtained outside the EES for a letter from their university, embassy or consulate to certify that their studies enable them to pursue a master degree or graduate studies.

Students are responsible for having all the official documentation necessary for their stay in Spain while studying at the School. Applicants can ask for a pre-acceptance document attached to the pre-enrollment receipt to initiate applications for visas or scholarships or carry out any other administrative procedure. Under no circumstances does this document guarantee a place if all the access and admission requirements are not met. Once applicants have been accepted and enrollment is complete, they can request a letter of admission from the Academic Secretary, if required, by paying the corresponding fees.

• Verification report

• Historical follow-up indicator table
• Academic results
• Center follow-up report