Master of Education (M.Ed.) Programme

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Introduction

Faculty of Education (FOE) was established as the College of Education in 1956 before the establishment of its mother institution, Tribhuvan University (TU) in 1959 to institutionalize teacher education programs in Nepal. With 26 constituent campuses and affiliated colleges scattered throughout the country, FOE has the biggest network of teacher education in the country. Since its establishment, FoE has been contributing to the nation by producing and supplying all kinds of human resources needed for educational sector of the country. 

FoE aims at producing trained and skilled educational manpower. More specifically, the central objective of FOE is to supply teachers, teacher trainers, educational planners and managers and educational researchers needed for the educational sector of the country. To achieve these goals and objectives, it offers diverse educational program in a wider range of subject areas including mathematics, science, language, social studies, and information communication and technology education (ICT) education from Bachelor to Master level.

FOE introduced the Master of Education (M.Ed.) Program with annual examination system in 1966. The M.Ed. Program was implemented in semester system between 1970 and 1978. Again, Tribhuvan University introduced its Master Level programs including M.Ed. in semester system in 2015. FoE has implemented the four-semester M.Ed. courses in in constitutional and affiliated campuses scattered in different parts of the country. Both professional and specialization courses have been revised and implemented since 2021.

Master of Education degree programs are designed to enable the student to become high school teachers, educators, and professional practitioner in education. The program consists of 69 credit hours including 21 credit hours of core professional course, 39 credit hours of specialization course, 3 credit hours teaching practice, 6 credit hours thesis writing course. Core course includes foundation of education, advanced educational psychology, measurement and evaluation, education and development, research methodology, and contemporary issues in education. The M.Ed. Specialization courses include Curriculum and Evaluation, Educational Planning and Management, English Education, Nepali Education, Science Education, Mathematics Education, Health Education, Physical Education, Economics Education, Geography Education, History Education, Political Science Education, Special Needs/Inclusive Education, and Information and Communication Technology Education. As per the requirement of the curriculum, each student is required to study one of the specialization areas based on course studied in Bachelor of Education. The courses for M.Ed. are prepared by respective subject committees and approved by Academic Council, TU. The courses are delivered through project works, assignments, seminar, case studies, and field studies in addition to lecture sessions.

M.Ed. program has adopted the semester system. The subject course teacher evaluates the students’ performance during semester teaching and learning activities that bears 40 percent of the total evaluation mark of each subject. At the end of each semester session, each student is required to appear in the semester end examination conducted by Office of the Dean. Practice Teaching/Practicum and Thesis are two courses which are fully practical in nature. Final examination of these courses is conducted by Dean’s Office of FoE.

Objectives of the Program

The overarching aim of the M.Ed. program is to produce high level academics and professionals of education who have knowledge of national and international system of education, education policy, pedagogy and competence in educational research including sound content knowledge to address national needs and international competitiveness. The specific objectives of the program are:

●  To produce qualified and competent teachers for upper high schools,

●  To produce efficient educational planners, administrators, managers, supervisors, and other educational experts,

●  To prepare educators to work for the promotion of the educational leadership and transformation of education system   making it relevant to the changing context,

●  To prepare preservice teachers/students to apply advanced knowledge and skills necessary in their area of specialization,

●  To enable students to incorporate theory and research into practice related to the area of specialization,

●  To promote innovative practices in the field of education

Ed. Course Structure

The total duration of the M. Ed. program is two years. Table 1 depicts the picture of the overall course structure.

Table 1 Overall Course Structure

Semesters	Core Courses and Credit Hours		Specialization Courses and Credit Hours				Teaching Practice and Credit Hours	Thesis Writing	Total Credits
	Course I	Course II	Course I	Course II	Course III	Course IV	-	-
I.	3	3	3	3	3	3	-	-	18
II.	3	3	3	3	3	3	-	-	18
III.	3	3	3	3	3	3	-	-	18
IV.	3		3		-	-	3	6	15
Total	21		39				3	6	69

As can be seen from Table 1, Master of Education (M.Ed.) is a four-semester program carrying 69 credit hours. It comprises seven core courses, seventeen specialization courses (see 3.2), Teaching Practice and Thesis. The core courses are compulsory ones that each student from any subject area (see the following section) is required to take. Two of them are positioned in the first, second, third and fourth semester. Each of the 7 core courses carries 3 credit hours, and thus they account for 21 credit hours (30.4%) altogether. Likewise, four specialization courses, each carrying 3 credit hours, are offered in the first, second and third semesters each. In the fourth semester, however, one elective course carrying 3 credit hours from each of the given specialization areas is also offered. The specialization and the elective courses are the ones typical of the given specialization areas and carry 39 credit hours (56.52%) for each specialization area. Besides, the Teaching Practice course, which every student from any of the subject areas other than Educational Planning and Management (who are required to conduct Practicum) and Special Needs Education/Inclusive Education requires to accomplish in the fourth semester, carries 3 credit hours (4.34%). This is a course typical of FOE, in which the students need to practically apply and demonstrate, in the actual workplace (classroom) situation, their knowledge and pedagogic skills acquired during the program. Similarly, the Thesis writing placed in the fourth semester carries 6 credit hours. Thesis writing course consists of Part A and Part B. Activities of the Part A are carried out by the assigned teachers to facilitate students for improving writing skills and developing proposal as well as preparation for data collection. In Part B, students are required to write their master’s thesis under supervision of thesis supervisor.

Courses Offered

Core education courses

The M. Ed. program offers 7 core courses which all students having different specialization subject areas have to undertake.

Table 2 Core Education Courses

S. no.	Course codes and names	Semesters	Credit hours
1.	Ed. 511:  Foundations of Education	First	3
2.	Ed. 513:  Advanced Educational Psychology		3
3.	Ed. 521:  Curriculum Practices	Second	3
4.	Ed. 522:  Education and Development		3
5.	Ed. 532:  Research Methodology in Education	Third	3
6.	Ed. 533: Measurement and Evaluation in Education		3
7.	Ed. 545: Contemporary Educational Issues	Fourth	3
8	Ed. 542 Teaching Practice or Ed.PM.542 Practicum in Educational Planning and Management Or SN.Ed. 542 Practicum in Special Needs Education		3
9	Ed. 544 Thesis writing		6
Total			30

 

Specialization and elective courses

The following specialization subject areas are offered.

● Biology Education

● Chemistry Education

● Curriculum and Evaluation

● Economics Education

● Education Planning and Management

● English Education

● Geography Education

● Health Education

● History Education

● ICT Education

● Math Education

● Nepali Education

● Physical Education

● Physics Education

● Political Science Education

● Population Education

● Special Need Education

Program Duration: The normal duration and the maximum duration for the completion of the requirements for the program are as follows: Normal duration 24 months (4 semesters) Maximum duration 5 years (60 months).

Entry Requirement

Students with B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) or Post-Graduate Diploma in Education from Tribhuvan University or a recognized university are eligible for the admission to M.Ed. Program. In addition, they need subject specific requirements for the admission in different specialization areas which are as follows:

Nepali Education

B.Ed. with major or minor Nepali Education

B.A with major Nepali and one-year B.Ed.

English Education

B.Ed. with major or minor English Education

B.A with major English and one-year B.Ed.

Mathematics Education

B.Ed. with major or minor Mathematics

B.A./B.Sc. with major Mathematics and one-year B.Ed.

Biology Education/Chemistry Education/Physics Education

B.Ed. with science education or B.Sc./B.Sc.Ag./B.Sc. Environmental Science with one-year B.Ed.

Health Education

B.Ed. with major Health and Education or minor health education or minor physical education

B.Ed. with population education

Bachelor of Public health (BPH)/Master of Nursing, B.Sc. with one- year B.Ed.

Physical Education

B.Ed. with major health and physical education or minor physical education

B.Ed. in any disciplines and experiences of participation in sports and athletics events

B.A./B.Sc. with one year B.Ed. and experiences of participation in sports and athletics events

Information and Communication Technology Education

B.Ed. ICT or BICTE

Bachelor’s Degree in computer sciences/Information Technology/BCA from a recognized university and One-Year B.Ed.

Special Needs Education/Inclusive Education

B.Ed. with major or minor special needs education

B.Ed. in any disciplines

B.A./B.Sc. with one year B.Ed.

Curriculum and Evaluation

B.Ed. in any disciplines

B.A./B.Sc. with one year B.Ed.

Education Planning and Management

B.Ed. in any disciplines

B.A./B.Sc. with one year B.Ed.

Economics Education

B.Ed. with major economics or mathematics

B.A. with major economics, mathematics and one-year B.Ed.

B.Sc. with mathematics or physics and one-year B.Ed.

Population Education

B.Ed. in any disciplines

B.A. in social sciences and one-year B.Ed.

Geography Education, Political Science Education and History Education

B.Ed. in any disciplines

B.A./B.Sc. with one- year B.Ed.

Admission and Credit Transfer

Admission Process

Students applying for the M. Ed. program must fill in the application as determined by with all details of their personal information and past academic records. The selection of students shall be based the marks obtained by the candidates in the Entrance exam based on educational aptitudes and knowledge specific to the specialization subject area.

Credit transfer

Students willing to transfer credit from accredited university/college or recognized by TU must apply at the FoE paying a sum of amount for each credit to be transferred.

● Concerned faculty or institute will review all previous university/college level grade sheet to determine what credits may be eligible to transfer.

● FOE will review every course taken by a student to another university/college.

● The student should complete the first semester duration in the master program to be eligible for credit transfer.

Teaching Practice

An M. Ed. student will have to undertake a six-week Teaching Practice in schools/campuses towards the end of the fourth semester as organized by its own department at the given campus/central department under the rules and regulations designed by FOE. However, the students of Education Planning and Management (EPM), and Special Needs Education will have to carry out a Practicum in the selected schools.      

Evaluation of Proposal Writing and Thesis

A student is required to undertake academic writing, a research assignment and prepare research proposal including thesis by the end of the fourth semester. The thesis writing course consists of Part A and Part B. The Part A is a taught course, an integral part of thesis writing course. It is also considered as a part of specialization course, which will be delivered by the subject teacher(s) assigned by the concerned department and/or campus. During course work, teachers will facilitate students to develop proposal, prepare data collection tools and write thesis. After preparation of the research proposal, the department/campus will arrange students’ presentation and viva. An expert evaluator having specialization and expertise in the same subject or similar subject will be hired from within campus or nearby campus to evaluate the proposal. The regular teacher / supervisor will evaluate students’ proposal in the capacity of internal expert.

During course work of the Part A or upon approval of research proposal, the campus (departments) will assign a faculty member to supervise the individual student's thesis writing work (Part B). The research work must be presented in the format as prescribed by FOE. Each student has to present and defense the finding of Thesis in front of Department Research Committee in the presence of a subject expert. Thesis evaluation committee comprising of department health, supervisor and expert will evaluate 40 marks of thesis. The student will improve and finalize the Thesis based on comments/suggestions received from the expert and research committee members after oral presentation of the findings. The department/campus will send the hardbound thesis along with internal evaluation marks to the Examination Division, Office of the Dean, Faculty of Education for final evaluation. The Office of the Dean, with consultation of the relevant Subject Committee, will appoint two professors/teachers to evaluate the thesis using the criteria in Table 3, accounting for the remaining 60 marks of Part B. The marks given by the two evaluators will be averaged and combined with the marks given by the campus/department as internal evaluation of the Thesis writing. Out of 200 marks in thesis writing course, 70% (140 marks) will be evaluated by the department/campus and only 30% (60 marks) will be externally evaluated by the office of the Dean, Kathmandu.

Evaluation Scheme of Taught Courses

The evaluation scheme includes internal evaluation and external evaluation. The internal evaluation and external evaluation carry respectively 40% and 60% of the total weightage (unless stated otherwise in detailed course contents of some courses). The students must pass separately in both types of evaluation.

Internal evaluation

Table 3, Internal Evaluation Scheme of taught courses

S. n.	Criteria	Time	Marks	Remarks
1.	Attendance	-	5	80% compulsory; Given by the subject teacher
2.	Participation in learning activities	-	5	Given by the subject teacher
3.	First assignment	At the end of 5th week	10	Given by the subject teacher
4.	Second assignment /assessment	At the end of 10th week	10	Given by the subject teacher
5	Final assessment/exam	At the end of 15th week	10	Given by the Dean's Office
Total			40

 

External evaluation

The external evaluation will be conducted by the Examination Section, Office of the Dean, Faculty of Education through a final written examination at the end of the semester. The types of questions to be used as indicated in Table 4.

Table 4 Item Types and Marks Value (for external examination)

S. n.	Item types	Number of items	Marks value		Remarks
			Per item	Total
1.	Objective questions	10	1	10 (10 × 1)	Multiple-choice items
2.	Short-answer questions	6	5	30 (6 × 5)	2 alternatives within any of the  questions
3.	Long-answer questions		2	20 (2 × 10)	alternative within any of the  questions

Grading system

The grading system followed in the M.Ed. program will be based on the absolute performance of a student in the in-semester assignments/assessments and the semester-end (external) examination. The performance of a student will be indicated on a four -point scale ranging from 0 to 4. The passing grade of an individual paper for the semester-end examination will be grade “B minus” or GPA of 2.7 (55%).

In order to pass the semester examination, the student must secure a minimum of Grade “B” or a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.0 (60 %). The overall grade of a student will be determined by the student’s performance indicated by the in-semester and semester-end examinations. The Letter Grade, GPA, percentage equivalent and performance remarks for the M.Ed. program are presented in Table 5.

Table 5 Grading System for M. Ed.

Grade	CGPA	Percentage equivalent	Performance remarks
A	4	90 and above	Distinction
A-	3.7	80-89.9	Very good
B+	3.4	70-79.9	First division
B	3	60-69.9	Second division
B-	2.7	55-59.9	Pass in individual course
F	0	Below 55	Fail

The internal assignment marks will be deducted in case of a variation of 20% (or above) occurs between the marks obtained by an individual student in the internal and external examinations.

 The students will receive their semester grades and academic transcript only in letter grades and GPA scores. Students who do not appear in the semester-end examinations will have to reregister and study all courses as per the semester cycle. Those students who appear and attempt only one subject in the semester-end examinations or fail in the semester-end examination can appear in the make-up examinations as per the semester cycle examination. FOE will organize the chance/make-up examinations in the last semester only, where a student may appear in at most 6 courses of the earlier three semesters.