Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies BA (Hons)
UCAS Code: X11C|Duration: 3 years|Full Time|Hope Park
UCAS Campus Code: L46
Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
This course in Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies will help you advocate for disability rights. In the UK, over 16 million people are disabled. Graduates with skills in this area are needed in education, health, social work, local government, and business. We encourage you to focus on knowledge rather than just needs.
You will work with a supportive team of both disabled and non-disabled academics. They will help you build the skills, knowledge, and confidence to lead in this field. You’ll look at the historical, social, and cultural factors that shape how we view special educational needs and disability. Activities will help you understand academic theories better. You’ll see how these theories apply in real jobs. Alongside tutors with extensive experience, guest speakers and partner organizations will contribute to your learning. These include disabled-led groups, education providers, charities, and disability arts organizations.
Liverpool Hope’s course is unique because of its link to the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies. This centre leads in disability studies research. It is the only UK centre that focuses on disability and culture.
In your second year, you can undertake a placement. This experience will help you see how disability studies relate to your future profession.
Course structure
Teaching on this special educational needs & disability studies course is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, seminars in smaller groups of around 15–20 students, tutorials with no more than 10 students, and workshops. You will also have the opportunity for a weekly one-to-one meeting with your tutor.
In the first year of your special educational needs & disability studies degree, there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, reducing to around 10 teaching hours each week in the second and third years. Alongside scheduled teaching, you are expected to spend 12–14 hours per week studying independently, as well as working in groups to prepare for group assessments. This special educational needs & disability studies course also includes a compulsory placement.
Assessment and feedback
During your Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies course, you will complete a variety of assessments designed to provide multiple opportunities to demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and understanding of both the academic and professional components of the degree. These assessments include essays, portfolios, poster and other presentations, and case studies.
As part of your Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies degree, you will receive both formative and summative feedback. This includes written feedback with opportunities for one-to-one discussions of feedback with your tutors.
Curriculum overview
Your academic development is embedded in the curriculum and progresses through each level of study.
Year One
The first year of your special educational needs & disability studies course provides you with knowledge and understanding of the key ideas in special educational needs & disability studies. You will study the following modules:
Understanding Disability: Activism, Rights and Inclusion
This module enables you to develop an understanding of the relationship between disability and society, and the different ways it has been understood over time. It includes a brief overview of early historical representations of disability but focuses most significantly on the emergence of categorisation and institutions in the nineteenth century as a basis for understanding contemporary ideas about special educational needs & disability studies.
You will explore disability in early years, youth, adulthood, later life, and old age. This deepens your understanding of the relationship between disability and education throughout the life course. While examining issues such as stigma and prejudice (for example in relation to psychiatric labels such as Borderline Personality Disorder), you will also consider the work of disability activists and academics, disability as a minority identity, and notions of disability pride.
Re-thinking Special Education: Culture, Identity and Society
A key focus of your first year in special educational needs & disability studies relates to how disability is represented in culture. This includes examining how social attitudes towards disability can be challenged or reinforced, for example through media representations, and opens up important discussions about the relationship between pity, charity, and disability.
You will develop an understanding of the relationship between disability and social practices that shape the everyday experiences of disabled people and the ways in which we think about SEN and disability. Themes include normalcy, language and terminology, charity and pity. You will also study contemporary understandings of intersectionality, considering the relationship between class, race, gender, sexuality, and disability.
You will explore the specificity of experiences of disability and SEN in greater depth, challenging the idea of disabled people as a homogeneous group. This includes examining factors that may shape an individual’s experience of disability or SEN, such as socioeconomic status, gender, class, and sexuality.
In addition, you will study two Faculty of Education and Social Sciences common core modules: Being Human and Education and Society.
Year Two
Social Theory of Disability
The second year of your special educational needs & disability studies course is underpinned by the social model of disability. You will develop an understanding of its significance in both theory and practice in relation to special educational needs & disability studies. You will also engage with recent and relevant research that demonstrates the application of the social model as a conceptual and practical tool for change.
Exploring Diversity, Disability and Education
You will engage with research offering alternative readings of impairment, including work on neurodiversity, dyslexia and lexism, as well as sensory, bodily, and cognitive diversity. You will be encouraged to develop independent research to support your choice for a focused study within special educational needs & disability studies.
Exploring Professional Values and Attitudes
The relationship between embodied and professional knowledge forms a core part of this section of the special educational needs & disability studies course. The ethics of professional practice are explored with reference to a range of educational contexts, professional roles, and practice-based research. You will also enhance your knowledge and awareness of issues relating to ethics of practice while gaining insights into potential future employment opportunities.
Researching Disability
This final element of second-year study engages with the ethical, philosophical, and practical dimensions of researching disability. You will examine the importance of lived and embodied experience as well as methods and approaches for emancipatory and participatory forms of research in special educational needs & disability studies.
If you study special educational needs & disability studies as a single honours pathway, you will also explore different approaches to understanding education, society, and professional practice through completing a placement.
Year Three
Theories of Disability
In the final year of your special educational needs & disability studies course, you will study contemporary work in special educational needs & disability studies. This includes critical disability theory, ableism/disablism, neo-liberal ableism, knowledge and power, disability and surveillance, race and ableism, the Tripartite model, appreciation and affirmation, and crip theory.
Inclusive Practice
You will explore a range of ideas that connect theory with inclusive practice. Key areas include cultural inclusion, inclusion and inclusive education, inclusive and exclusive policy, transformability, Universal Design, and Universal Design for Learning.
Disability and Ethics
This theme provides important insights into the relationship between disability and ethics. Topics include disability ethics and technology, the ethics of intervention such as medical intervention, and the ethics of choice.
If you study special educational needs & disability studies as a single honours pathway, you will also have the opportunity to choose from a range of specialist modules in social sciences and education.
Dissertation Phase
You will identify an aspect of study related to special educational needs & disability studies and develop a piece of independent research into your chosen area. The following courses are indicative of topics available in your final year:
- Neither Seen nor Heard: Listening to the Stories of Marginalised Young People
- Policy Analysis: Special Educational Needs, Inclusion and Disability
- Researching the Cultural History of Learning Disability
- Disablement & Time
- Metanarratives of Disability and Assumed Authority
- Disability Rights, Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain
- Researching the Representation of Disability in Popular Culture
- Exploring Chronic Illness, Neurodiversity and Mental Health Distress
- Disability and Disney
- Neurodiversity
- Disability Studies, Arts and Education
- Disability and the Built Environment
Entry requirements
| A-Levels | BCC - BBB |
|---|---|
| UCAS Tariff Points | 104 - 120 UCAS Tariff points must come from a minimum of two A Levels (or equivalent). Additional points can be made up from a range of alternative qualifications |
| BTEC | DMM - DDM |
| Access to HE | 104 - 120 Tariff Points |
| IB | 26 |
| Irish Leaving Certificate | 104 - 120 Tariff Points from Higher Level qualifications only |
| Welsh Baccalaureate | This qualification can only be accepted in conjunction with other relevant qualifications |
| T-Levels | Merit |
| Subject Requirements | No specific subject requirements |
International entry requirements
| Specific Country Requirements | Select your country |
|---|---|
| IELTS | 6.0 overall (with reading and writing at 6.0) and no individual score lower than 5.5. We also accept a wide range of International Qualifications. For more information, please visit our English Language Requirements page. |
Careers
This degree offers excellent preparation for a range of careers including teaching and social work as well as work with organisations that are led by and on behalf of disabled people. The degree also offers a route into postgraduate study including MA Disability Studies.
On graduating, you will be able to advocate for those identified as having a special educational need and/or disability. You will also have the confidence to further the understanding of others. You will have developed relevant research skills and methodologies and have the ability to critically reflect on theory, policy and practice in relation to Special Educational Needs and Disability.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
In your second year of study, there is a compulsory work placement. This may be a school setting but may also be a cultural setting or voluntary organisation in order for you to develop an appreciation of education in non-compulsory settings. The emphasis on work with cultural organisations will enable you to apply your insights from disability studies.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year are £9,535* for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,535*.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
*subject to Council approval.
Additional costs
As well as tuition fees, you will need approximately £200 to purchase any necessary texts during your three years of study. There will also be travel costs when you go on placement, this usually costs around £100.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2026/27 are £14,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.