University Master's Degree Course in Attention to Diversity and Inclusive Education

Official Master in Attending to Diversity and Inclusive Education

The University Master’s in Attending to Diversity and Inclusive Education offered by the Blanquerna-URL Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences empowers students to manage and innovate inclusive educational practice in Early Childhood, Primary and Secondary Education. In this respect, students can contribute to the fact that the school becomes inclusive and provides specialised care both to pupils with support needs and their families, both in a mainstream school and in a specialized centre. Furthermore, this Master’s course also empowers students to participate in and promote action/research lines in the field of planning and attention in Primary and Secondary Education.

The Master’s is targeted at graduates and holders of diplomas or Bachelor’s degrees in Teacher Training, Psychology, Education, Social Education, Speech and Language Therapy, Physical Therapy and other degrees (with a previous evaluation of the candidate’s academic record by the Post-Graduate Committee).

Early Childhood Education and Primary Education degree holders and Teacher Training diploma holders in this master's course will have the option to apply for a position as special education specialist at a state school and/or to join the reserve pool of supply teachers in the specialization of therapeutic pedagogy (recognized by the the Department of Education 30500).

Admission criteria

For admission to the University Master’s in Attending to Diversity and Inclusive Education, candidates must meet the admission requirements established in Royal Decree 1393/2007, which regulates official post-graduate university programmes. In accordance with Royal Decree 1393/2007, which organises official university programmes, to gain admission into the University Master’s in Attending to Diversity and Inclusive Education students must hold an official Spanish university degree or another equivalent degree issued by a higher education institution within the European Higher Education Area which enables the holder of this degree of gain admission into Master’s degrees in the country where the degree was issued.

The degrees which provide admission to the Master’s are the ones that develop competences related to education and health.

Specifically:

Diploma holders or graduates (prior to adaptation to the European Higher Education Area)

• Diploma in Preschool Teacher Training
• Diploma in Primary Teacher Training
• Diploma in Special Education Teacher Training
• Diploma in Music Teacher Training
• Diploma in Foreign Language Teacher Training
• Diploma in Physical Education Teacher Training
• Diploma in Social Education
• Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy
• Bachelor’s in Education
• Bachelor’s in Psychology
• Bachelor’s in Educational Psychology

Graduates

• Graduate in Primary Education
• Graduate in Preschool Education
• Graduate in Social Education
• Graduate in Physical Therapy
• Graduate in Speech and Language Therapy
• Graduate in Education
• Graduate in Psychology
• Graduate in Occupational Therapy
• Foreign degree holders from the European Higher Education Area or from other recognised countries with a previous evaluation of the candidate’s academic record by the faculty’s Post-Graduate Committee.

Students are informed that should their admission degree be the Diploma in Social Education, the Diploma in Speech and Language Therapy or Teacher Training Diplomas in the different specialities, earning the University Master’s will not automatically qualify them for admission to doctoral degrees if they have not earned at least 300 ECTS in all their university studies combined.

The selection and admission criteria of the Blanquerna-URL Faculty of Psychology, Education and Sport Sciences are based on:

• Grade point average (40%)
• Prior professional experience in the field of teaching, education and attending to diversity (20%)
• Student motivation (20%)
• Complementary training in the field of study of the Master’s (10%)
• Language level (English), at least level B2.1 is recommended (10%)

The criterion of student motivation is evaluated by a semi-structured interview. Among other topics, candidates will be asked about their educational and professional expectations, their competences, their work and professional status, their conceptions of learning, diversity, orientation and educational psychology. The interview will be conducted by one of the individuals in charge of the University Master’s in Attending to Diversity and Inclusive Education.

If students have some professional or work experience, or if they have studied a course or subject in other unofficial university degree programmes, these are generally recognised as long as this experience is related to the competences inherent to this degree (Royal Decree 861/2010 dated the 2nd of July 2010, art. 6). The maximum number of credits that can be recognised from professional or work experience and unofficial university degrees as a whole may not exceed 9 ECTS.

The criteria used to assess any professional experience recognised for credit are:

• Roles and responsibilities performed (60%)
• Years of professional experience (20%)
• Publications and papers at scholarly conferences and workshops (10%)
• Diversity of cumulative experience and other work experience not included in the field of the Master’s (10%)

Only job fields related to master's specific content will be recognised (in accordance with the competences in the Master’s practicum).

The criteria used to establish the scales are formulated as follows:

• Work and professional experiences, the roles and responsibilities performed and the diversity of cumulative experience (from 6 months to 1 year: 2 ECTS; between 1 and 3 years: 6 ECTS; more than 3 years: 9 ECTS).

• Publications and papers at scholarly events related to special education will be assigned a maximum of 3 ECTS.
• ECTS from recognition (the accreditation of each publication and paper will be analysed according to the type of publication [popular magazine vs. scholarly journal] and the impact of the publication in which it appears [national, international, with a scholarly peer review, etc.] and the number and order of the authors).

The University Master’s Committee is the body in charge of evaluating the admission criteria, weighing each candidates’ professional experience and determining the list of candidates to be admitted into the programme.