The Aberdeen MEd, Past, Present, Future

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John Nisbet wrote a number or articles on the ‘Aberdeen MEd’ and two, the first from
Volume 6, 1969 and the second from New Series Number 5, 1997 caught my eye.
In the first article John gives a history of the MEd from its first award in 1921 to two
students and its name the Ed.B. to 1969 when 98 students (with 40% of applicants
refused entry and University caps on numbers) enrolled. The MEd was in two parts a
diploma and a degree stage. The curriculum is noted as covering a large amount of
psychology, statistics and even biology! Graduates by in large moved on to jobs as
lecturers, university and college of education researchers, and psychologists. This is
very much the early days for educational research as an important are for the
classroom teacher and a vastly different MEd to that of today.
In the second MEd article in 1997 John says farewell to the qualification at the
University of Aberdeen. The challenging course run in evenings and weekends, with
‘finals’ sat and a dissertation to be completed, awarded to over 600 graduates many
of whom had become the great and the good of Scottish Education, was
discontinued by the institution for financial reasons.
This article is a fascinating history of the creation of the University Department of
Education in 1890 and it continuous struggle for survival. As usual John was political
but not overtly controversial commenting on the possible decline in interest in an
‘academic, research-based’ degree and a move towards, ‘practically-oriented’
courses, and the then forthcoming merger with Northern College. I had no idea of the
hard work that went into keeping such a valuable qualification alive for so long.

Claire Molloy
June 2016

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