Expand your theoretical knowledge and develop the skills and approaches needed to grow as a professional coach or mentor with our MA in Coaching and Mentoring Practice.

The course is delivered by our world-class International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies. which promotes cutting-edge research and teaching. You will:

integrate your work and life experiences with the theoretical concepts underpinning coaching and mentoring
expand your knowledge of theories
apply your knowledge to a variety of working contexts with the support of a unique blend of tutor input and individual coach-supervisor support.

You could be new to coaching and mentoring or an established coach or mentor. This course is aimed at:

internal or external coaches
consultants
mentor co-ordinators
coaching psychologists
counsellors
managers
human resources development staff
leadership professionals from the voluntary, public and private sectors.

It's not always necessary to have a degree if you can show you have an appropriate level of experience.

How to apply

Entry requirements

Specific entry requirements

A minimum of a second-class honours degree (2:2) in any academic discipline, or equivalent overseas degree from a recognised institution or equivalent professional or other qualification, and at least two year’s relevant professional experience.

Exceptionally, applicants who can show that they have qualifications or experience or both that demonstrate that they have alternative knowledge and capabilities equivalent to those possessed by holders of the qualifications listed above, may be admitted with dispensation from the requirement to possess those qualifications.

Entry will also be subject to two satisfactory references.

Please also see the University's general entry requirements.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language you will need to satisfy the university's English language requirements:

IELTS minimum level 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.0 in reading and writing, and 5.5 in listening and speaking) or equivalent
If you have completed your undergraduate degree in the UK (at least one full year of study) you will automatically meet our English language requirements

Please also see the University's standard English language requirements.

English requirements for visas

If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements. Find out more about English language requirements.

International applications

International applicants should apply for the Distance Learning option as student visas are not available for part-time postgraduate study in the UK.

Pathways courses for international and EU students

We offer a range of courses to help you meet the entry requirements for your postgraduate course and also familiarise you with university life in the UK.

Take a Pre-Master's course to develop your subject knowledge, study skills and academic language level in preparation for your master's course.

If you need to improve your English language, we offer pre-sessional English language courses to help you meet the English language requirements of your chosen master’s course.

Terms and Conditions of Enrolment

When you accept our offer, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.

Application process

Apply now

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note

Home (UK) part time

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

Home (UK) distance learning

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

International distance learning

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

Home (UK) part time

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

Home (UK) distance learning

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

International distance learning

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 483088

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Tuition fees

2023 / 24

Home (UK) part time

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

Home (UK) distance learning

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

International distance learning

Masters £13,600 (over 2 years); Diploma £9,980 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,030 (1 year)

2024 / 25

Home (UK) part time

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

Home (UK) distance learning

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

International distance learning

Masters £14,300 (over 2 years); Diploma £10,490 (over 18 months); Certificate £6,340 (1 year)

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 483088

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Fees quoted are the full price of the course.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

Optional costs

Additional costs
Additional costs	Amount (£)
It’s your responsibility to cover print / binding costs where coursework submission is required. Please note that a lot of the coursework is now submitted online.	From £30
Accommodation fees in Brookes Letting (most do not include bills)	£94-265 per week
Accommodation fees in university halls (bills included, excluding laundry costs)	£122-180 per week
Graduation costs include tickets, gowning and photography. Gowns are not compulsory but typically students do hire robes, starting at £41.	Typically £0-200
Students are responsible for their own travel to and from university for classes. BrookesBus travel is subsidised for full-time undergraduate students that are on a course with a fee of £9,250 or more, or living in an Oxford Brookes hall of residence. There is an administration fee for the production of a BrookesKey.	From £10

Funding your studies

Financial support and scholarships

Featured funding opportunities available for this course.

Postgraduate Master's Loan - England

All financial support and scholarships

View all funding opportunities for this course

Learning and assessment

This part-time course can be studied either as a blended on campus/online programme, or via Distance Learning. It consists of seven modules of study amounting to 180 credits studied over a two-year period.

You will study three stages:

the postgraduate certificate stage which consists of three 20-credit modules
the postgraduate diploma stage has three further 20-credit modules
the master's dissertation has a full 60 credits.

You can choose to finish your studies at the end of the postgraduate certificate or postgraduate diploma stage and graduate with that award.

Study modules

The modules listed below are for the master's award. For the PGDip and PGCert awards your module choices may be different. Please contact us for more details.

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

Coaching and Mentoring Practice Fundamentals (20 credits)

In addition to familiarising you with fundamental principles, skills and theories, this module provides you with vital experience of acting as a mentor/coach and of being professionally supervised by a professional coach supervisor. You therefore draw on the expertise of internationally recognised coaching and mentoring experts, your own experience and a wide literature. Over a period of five months, you apply coaching and mentoring methods and techniques. With feedback from supervisors and volunteer clients and systematic reflection you can identify areas for personal and organisational growth.

Transformational Learning and Adult Development (20 credits)

You examine a number of transformational and adult learning theories and concepts and how they apply to coaching and mentoring. You are encouraged to think critically and increase your awareness of issues in adult learning and development.

Psychotherapeutic Dimensions of Coaching and Mentoring: (20 credits)

You will focus on how important approaches in psychotherapy and counselling can impact coaching and mentoring. These include: psychodynamic, humanistic and cognitive behavioural. We explore the philosophy and theory of the different schools within these orientations and their different techniques and models. You consider boundaries and ethical issues and draw your own opinion on how these ideas have been applied. This will help enable you identify and build your own approach.

Advanced Coaching and Mentoring Practice (20 credits)

On this compulsory module you explore a more challenging level of professional practice. In-depth workshops develop the practice of the reflective, evidence-based professional practitioner. You will continue to develop your coaching and mentoring practice and receive one-to-one supervision throughout this module.

Psychology of Coaching and Mentoring (20 credits)

The module promotes an advanced understanding of coaching and mentoring based on the research and theories developed in branches of psychology. The module explores insights and ideas from evolutionary psychology, psychobiology, neuroscience, social and discursive psychology with implications for individual change and development. These ideas are discussed with explicit links to coaching and mentoring practice focusing on the needs/intentions of the individual during the coaching and mentoring process. Students develop an understanding of a range of perspectives which contribute to their style of coaching and promote reflexivity on their sense of self and own personal and professional development. The module encourages critical enquiry and reflection, professional knowledge and expertise. There is an emphasis on critical and independent thought, participatory learning, engagement with the peer reviewed literature and participation in contemporary debates in coaching and mentoring.

Coaching and Mentoring in Organisations (20 credits)

In this module you explore the processes and issues involved in setting up a formal coaching and mentoring scheme within an organisational setting. In particular, you examine a range of organisational dynamics and crucial factors for implementing a successful scheme. You will need to arrange access to stakeholders of a scheme in an organisation well in advance as your assignment will normally be based around a real case-study. The assignment will be to evaluate an existing scheme, or assess the organisation’s readiness for the new scheme.

Research in Coaching and Mentoring (compulsory for students completing the full MA)

This module will help you develop your knowledge of a range of research approaches, methods and techniques appropriate to the study of coaching and mentoring. You will develop skills in evaluating research carried out and reported by others, looking at the ‘evidence-base’ for coaching and mentoring professional practice.

Independent study

Optional modules

Independent Study (may be work-based or theoretical)

It is possible to select a relevant topic for an independent study. This is carried out under the supervision of a tutor and may constitute a review of a particular topic, empirical or conceptual research. This module may be followed in place of one of the PG Diploma stage optional modules.

Final project

Compulsory modules

Dissertation (60 credits)

You complete a piece of investigative or literature-cased research and this comprises sixty credits of your degree. You prepare you dissertation proposal in the first semester of the second year and you work on your dissertation during semester two and three. You will build on your learning throughout the course and you are supported through six methodology workshops, a buddy system and academic supervision.

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Learning and teaching

If you choose the on-campus blended mode of study, you’ll learn at the Headington campus. Your learning will combine whole-day intensive sessions, plus online and independent learning. On-campus sessions are on intermittent Saturdays, supported by regular online seminars which you complete in your own time.

If you choose to do the course via fully distance learning, you’ll learn via interactive and high-quality online resources. And you’ll participate in live online seminars on intermittent Friday afternoons.

Your learning will be a mix of learning activities which will emphasise interactive discussions, class exercises and the use of slides and other materials. Each module builds upon the last, helping you to deepen your practice. You’ll be closely supported by your tutors as you build your research skills and deepen your capacity to be a reflective practitioner. You could also apply to take the Professional Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring upon successful completion of the MA.

Assessment

Assessment methods used on this course

You will be assessed on a variety of coursework assignments and a dissertation. There are no exams.

Research

The master's programme is taught through the International Centre for Coaching and Mentoring Studies. At the forefront of coaching and mentoring research, the Centre’s academic team consists of leading educators and researchers in the field.

Our journal, annual conferences and professional network OBCAMS (the Oxford Brookes Coaching and Mentoring Society) offer excellent opportunities to students, academics and practitioners for the dissemination and sharing of research and ideas.

Our Research areas include:

philosophical underpinnings of coaching
developmental, leadership and team coaching
resilience
embodiment
transfer of learning
the coaching relationship
ethics
managing mentoring schemes.

Teaching staff have research interests and expertise in coaching and mentoring, and related fields. Visiting speakers from business and industry provide further input.

You can attend events from the Oxford Brookes Coaching and Mentoring Society (OBCAMS), which meets monthly. It attracts outside speakers and presenters from all areas of coaching and mentoring.

After you graduate

Career prospects

Oxford Brookes University Business School is the UK's leading provider of master's-level education in coaching and mentoring practice. We seek to help you to develop yourself as a coach or mentor and to demonstrate your coaching credibility and expertise. Anyone looking to establish a reputation and build a career in coaching and mentoring will benefit from one of our part-time postgraduate level qualifications.

Graduates of this course find that their employment opportunities are enhanced or that their business increases as a result of their greater depth of understanding of the field and the variety of new networks and contacts formed during the course.

If you are passionate about research and want to take your professional expertise to the next level, following your MA you can extend your study to its highest level by completing our Doctor of Coaching and Mentoring Programme.

Student profiles

Gavin Wells

"One of the first things that attracted me to the course was the diversity of the student population, or rather, that for once I was in the minority"

Our Staff

Dr Adrian Myers

Adrian is the course leader for the MA in Coaching and Mentoring practice and teaches the Level 7 programme in Coaching and Mentoring. Adrian also supports organisations to help internal coaching schemes and helping managers acquire coaching skills.

Dr Adrian Myers

Dr Ioanna Iordanou

Ioanna is a senior lecturer in Human Resource Management who is researching the influence of Coaching on individual and team performance, group dynamics, leadership development and change management.

Related courses

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.