Education - University of Wollongong

Shape the minds of tomorrow

Education is a rewarding career that can truly change lives. Few other jobs let you have such a profound impact on the lives of so many. As an educator you’ll play an important role in the social, cognitive and emotional development of your students — and become a respected member of your community.

Authentic learning experiences will prepare you for a career in early childhood, primary or secondary classrooms and beyond.

Undergraduate courses
Postgraduate coursework & research
Pathways to UOW

Postgraduate Coursework

Postgraduate Research

Entrance Pathways

Diploma Courses

Diploma of Social Science

Our education degrees rank among the best in the world:

Number 1 in NSW: UOW ranked number one in NSW and ACT for Education in the 2020 Good Universities Guide.
Top 100 in the World: UOW ranked in the top 150 universities for Education in the Times Higher Education and QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2020.
Graduate outcomes: In the 2020 Good Universities Guide, UOW Teacher Education ranked number 1 in Australia for learning resources, and number 1 in NSW for overall quality of educational experience and student support. UOW also received 5-star ratings for learner engagement, skills development, and teaching quality in the study area of Teacher Education.

Education graduate Emma stands in a children's play centre

Go beyond the textbook:

Practical placements are built into our industry accredited degrees. You'll benefit from more than 80 days of professional practice. Not only do we secure and organise these high quality professional experience placements for you - we are one of few unis to also provide support throughout your professional experience.
Diverse graduates: There are a variety of placements available. Opportunities include local, rural and international placements where you will apply your skills in real-world classrooms and settings.
Authentic experiences: We have excellent mentoring and engagement programs with our professional practice partner schools. This includes two Demonstration Schools, where some of our lectures are delivered.

An education student talks to a group of primary school boys

Earn a recognised qualification:

Our primary and secondary education degrees are accredited and recognised as a national professional teaching qualification.
Early Years education programs are accredited by the Australian Children's Education & Care Quality Authority.
See individual course descriptions for more detail.

A UOW education student explains a task to a group of high school boys

Discover your passion, then develop the specialist skills that employers want:

Choice: Find your purpose, with the choice to study early years, primary, secondary or tertiary education.
Specialist skills: Study a specialist teaching qualification in maths, science or physical education, autism or education leadership. Our curriculum reflects the latest approach to teacher education, and incorporates existing and emerging information technologies.
Challenge yourself: Contribute to the advancement of education knowledge through a research degree.
Diverse graduates: At UOW, the skills you will learn are highly-transferable across a range of careers, and a diversity of education settings including rural and regional Australian, as well as internationally.

Primary school students run with their physical education teacher

A degree from UOW opens doors:

The forefront of learning: You'll have access to the $44 million Early Start facility — the most sophisticated teaching, research and community engagement initiative undertaken in Australia.
Industry collaboration: UOW has a strong education research reputation in collaboration with industry.
Access to experts: Our academics — your teachers — are at the forefront of their specialisations. They are passionate about teaching and learning, published authors and expert researchers.
University of choice: We’re considered a ‘university of choice’ with placement partnership agreements signed with over 300 schools around the region - including the Illawarra, Sutherland Shire, Campbelltown and Southern Highlands.
Get noticed: Gain valuable real-world experience, and make professional connections that will help launch your career, with a professional teaching placement.

Glenn Salkeld stands in front of cartoon drawings in the Early Start Centre

Become one of the world's most employable graduates

A UOW education degree can lead to a wide variety of careers both inside and outside the classroom. You'll develop a range of skills, and gain the practical experience employers want.

Here is just a sample of the careers you can pursue:

School teacher – catholic, independent or government
Early Childhood Teacher
Educational consultant
Educational manager
High school teacher
Outdoor education teacher
PDHPE teacher
Preschool teacher

Primary teacher
Private college teacher
Recreational activities coordinator
School counsellor
School principal
Sport development officer
TAFE teacher
Training and development officer

Meet Sam

I did prac in both years of my degree. Actually being in a classroom – it’s incredible feeling your confidence build, and getting to test out things you’ve only learnt about in theory and seeing where they work and don’t work. Teaching changes constantly, and being prepared and walking into a challenging (but rewarding) job with your eyes wide open is such an important thing to me.SamanthaMASTER OF TEACHING (SECONDARY)

Turn your passion into purpose

At UOW, you'll learn from passionate academics who are experts in their field, and accomplished researchers. For Claire, studying education at UOW is helping her to be the best teacher she can be.

A student experience like no other

UOWx volunteering

Get involved in the community while boosting your resume with an official UOWx transcript. From mentoring to tutoring to uni events, there's a volunteer role for everyone.

Clubs & societies

From chemistry to quidditch, find your tribe in one of 150 student clubs at UOW.

Study in the home of education research

Steven Howard reads a book with children in the Early Start centre.

Family Learning & Interaction

An Early Start research theme, FLINT analyses the critical parent-child interaction during the early years of children’s development.

A child writes on a sheet of paper with pencil

Pedagogical Laboratory for Education

An interdisciplinary team focused on developing new standards in teaching and learning settings.

Two primary school boys play on tablets in a classroom

The digital child

UOW research is developing a fresh education perspective for today's world, examining the importance of play, and the rise of digital media.

We're fearless in the pursuit of our purpose. At UOW, you'll have ground-breaking research at your fingertips.

Early Start

The $44million Early Start facility is the most sophisticated early childhood teaching and community engagement initiative ever undertaken in Australia. The facility includes a multidisciplinary international research hub with a focus on creating an innovative approach to teaching and learning, and improving early childhood outcomes.

LEARN MORE

Early Start is something new. It's something

different. Early Start is a way of capturing the potential of the University and putting it into direct contact with the community like never before. We're creating partnerships with community around early childhood and

family. We have a focus on harnessing the potential of the University to bring about better outcomes for young children, particularly in disadvantaged, regional, rural and remote areas.

So Early Start consists of a $44 million dollar investment in infrastructure and a continuing investment by the University and its partners. It specifically consists of four key components that includes a Discovery Dpace, Australia's only dedicated children's museum and the first of its kind anywhere in the world to be based on a university campus. It's specifically designed for children from birth to 12 years of age and their accompanying carers, teachers, educators to enjoy together.

The second component includes a multidisciplinary international research hub which brings about researchers from across the world and from diverse domains who all share a common interest in bringing about better

outcomes for children and families and who are working together to ask new and more integrated questions. The third component includes innovative approaches to teaching which including state-of-the-art teaching facilities, as well as access to some of the best academic staff from around the world and with the potential to create a unique learning experience for students who want to work with children, families and communities. The fourth component is a critically important partnership with 41 early years education and care centers

which are located from Tweed Heads in the north to Broken Hill in the west and to Bega in the south. And they're equipped with the latest technology, they're at the coalface and they share the aspirations and goals of Early Start, and they're working with us to help pioneer innovative ideas to translate research into practice and to help redress social and educational disadvantage.

At early start what we're doing is creating an innovative approach to teaching and learning. We want to put

students into new situations. We want to show them different ways of thinking with and engaging with children, communities and families and we want to build that into our programs so a high-quality early years education can make the world of difference to a child and to their family. The evidence is in we know that for children coming from very high-risk environments or from profound disadvantage can benefit enormously from what a quality early years environment can offer.

So Professor James Heckman, Nobel Memorial Prize winner, showed why understanding early childhood

development is relevant to all of us. Specifically he showed that those greater economic gains from investing in early childhood education, in care, and that these gains are actually greater than investing in the later years of education, and that by investing in early childhood programs particularly for disadvantaged children brings about better outcomes in terms of education outcomes, social outcomes, health outcomes and economic outcomes for individuals and for society.