Home

Infancy and Early Childhood Development MSc

London, Bloomsbury

A unique Master’s degree covering childhood development, from prenatal to preschool stages – across health, neuroscience, psychology, education and social perspectives – in a single course. Our programme benefits from UCL’s strong links to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, small class sizes and the option to shape your own study pathway.

UK students International students
Study mode
UK tuition fees (2025/26)
£16,000
Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.
Overseas tuition fees (2025/26)
£36,500
Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.
Duration
1 calendar year
5 calendar years
Programme starts
September 2025
Applications accepted
Applicants who require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 27 Jun 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Applicants who do not require a visa: 14 Oct 2024 – 29 Aug 2025
Applications close at 5pm UK time

Applications open

Apply for this course

Entry requirements

A minimum of an upper second-class Bachelor’s degree in psychology, medicine or other health or education related topic from a UK university or an overseas qualification of an equivalent standard.

The English language level for this programme is: Level 2

UCL Pre-Master's and Pre-sessional English courses are for international students who are aiming to study for a postgraduate degree at UCL. The courses will develop your academic English and academic skills required to succeed at postgraduate level.

Further information can be found on our English language requirements page.

Equivalent qualifications

Country-specific information, including details of when UCL representatives are visiting your part of the world, can be obtained from the International Students website.

International applicants can find out the equivalent qualification for their country by selecting from the list below. Please note that the equivalency will correspond to the broad UK degree classification stated on this page (e.g. upper second-class). Where a specific overall percentage is required in the UK qualification, the international equivalency will be higher than that stated below. Please contact Graduate Admissions should you require further advice.

About this degree



If you’re looking to specialise in early years development, this course is extremely unique in covering clinical and theoretical psychology, neuroscience, medical and allied health perspectives within a single programme.

The core modules focus in on early development, from in utero life to five years of age.

You’ll study these different stages across disciplines, to connect diverse perspectives on typical and atypical development, using psychology, education, medical, health, social and education contexts, as you build your research skills and explore real-life cases and clinical material.

The programme is highly flexible, so you can shape your Master’s degree to reflect your academic interests and career goals.

You’ll learn all about social, emotional and cognitive development, caregiver relationships including feeding, play and early learning environments, neurodiversity, assessments and interventions, childhood disorders, and medical and neurological conditions.

You’ll also learn statistics and critical appraisal in child health and, if you’re studying the course to MSc level, undertake your own research project. 

Who this course is for

This programme is suitable for health and allied professionals who wish to specialise in early development and augment their professional portfolio. Many students from our programme – early in their career progression – may go on to apply for practitioner further training. The course also provides excellent opportunities (including valuable networks across the UCL campus) as an introduction into academia and further academic study such as a PhD.

Read about what it takes to study for a Master's at UCL

What this course will give you

  • Work with UK-wide and international clinicians and research experts at UCL’s Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health (UCL GOS ICH), a world leader in the delivery of paediatric healthcare, research and education.
  • Study at one of the world's top ten universities. UCL is ranked 6th in the world for public health (ShanghaiRankings 2023), 9th in the world as a university (QS World Rankings 2025) and is rated No.1 for research power and impact in medicine, health and life sciences (REF 2021).
  • Access to a highly interactive and engaging learning community of like-minded peers, researchers and academics, with regular networking opportunities for academic and professional development.
  • Benefit from UCL’s close links to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children – many of our lecturers are academics (who have often written key course texts or material) and clinicians working with families translating the science into practice.
  • Benefit from smaller class sizes – with lots of opportunity to contribute to discussion and debate in lectures and seminars.
  • Study this subject from an in depth, multidisciplinary perspective – learning about psychological development, education, medical aspects, and health and social context factors.
  • Work across disciplines, giving you unique opportunities to interface across disciplines and explore the many variables relevant to early childhood development.
  • A strong emphasis on developing transferrable professional and academic skills.
  • Graduate with a specialism in early years development, which you can then take forward into further academic research or practitioner training, depending on which direction you want to go in next.
     
Read about what you'll get out of a graduate programme

The foundation of your career

During the Master’s degree, you’ll gain a solid theoretical and practical base of knowledge in child development, environmental influences, and medical and educational aspects within the prenatal to five-year period.

You’ll meet, and have opportunities to network with, professionals from diverse fields including paediatricians, neurologists, psychologists, health visitors, play specialists, dieticians and early-years educators.

You’ll be exposed to a range of evaluation, treatment and intervention approaches and develop research method, analysis and communication skills, including those for communicating research to the general public.

Graduates of this course have gone on to apply for training in Clinical Psychology, work with prestigious organisations such as Public Health England, The World Health Organization, or become Early Years specialists in their field of medicine, nursing and allied professions. 

Employability

The skills and expertise that you will gain are relevant to PhD-level study, a career in early childhood development research, or roles within the medical/educational professions working with infants and young children. 

The degree is an academic qualification and shouldn’t be considered as clinical training. However, it is a valuable addition to your professional portfolio, if you’re already working in clinical settings or if you’re a student planning to apply to clinical training courses.

Networking

UCL GOS ICH offers seven MSc programmes as well as an MRes in Child Health encompassing a wide range of topics. Our students come from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, from the UK and overseas providing great networking opportunities within and across programmes. We hold social events throughout the year for the whole student cohort to enable networking between students. Students on the Master's programmes have the opportunity to join events such as the Otto Wolff lectures hosted by the research and teaching departments. These cover a variety of topics and provide an opportunity to hear from national and international experts and to network at the social event that usually accompanies these events.   

There are also opportunities to network and attend events through the UCL GOS-ICH Centre for Paediatric Mental Health, a liaison between UCL GOS ICH and Great Ormond Street Hospital focused on researching mental health in the context of paediatric physical health problems.

Teaching and learning

We use a variety of teaching methods across the programme. In our core modules, we use lecture-style teaching, interactive seminars, video and online learning as some main features.  Discussion is an important part of all of these, whether face to face or online. We include a number of online interactive and ‘drop-in’ sessions to support academic writing and your research project write-up. During all of our teaching we use tools such as Mentimeter and other options to support interaction during sessions.

Meet the academics currently leading this programme on the UCL GOS ICH website. 

Students will be evaluated by written work (essays, article commentaries, research dissertation), and oral presentations. Optional modules assessments may include all of the above or other formats such as writing leaflets for the lay public or creating blogs.

Compulsory (core) modules are delivered as blocks of study normally over several full weekdays delivered over a two-week period. However, these may be subject to change depending on timetable demands. Face-to-face contact for each of these is typically between 9:00am - 5:30pm.

Overall we expect full-time students to study a full 35-hour week, with time outside classes spent in self-directed study. Part-time and flexible students study at a pro-rata rate.

A Postgraduate Diploma, four core modules (60 credits), two to four optional modules (60 credits), full-time one year or flexible study up to five years, is offered.

Modules

This MSc in Infancy and Early Childhood Development focuses primarily on the period from prenatal life to five years of age, from a variety of perspectives.

In First Term, you will study Prenatal and Newborn Development, Infant Development, Applied Statistics for Health Research I. You will hand in your research proposal at the end of your First Term.

At the start of your Second Term, you will study Pre-school Years. This module further develops key concepts learnt in First Term and will develop your understanding of pre-schoolers, in relation to the health, educational, social/policy and psychological issues relevant to this age. 

These core modules set the foundation for the MSc, preparing you for further topics by introducing the fundamental principles behind a range of methodologies and perspectives in the first postnatal years, they will provide an academic background on the diversity of development, its assessment and management in various domains. You will also acquire research and statistics skills necessary for MSc project completion.

In Second and Third Term, you will work on your research project, as well as take your optional modules. Options are chosen in First Term, and can be selected from the list provided or by permission from the course Directors and Module Leaders. You will hand in your research project at the end of August.

This programme is available as a one-year full time course or in a modular/flexible mode of a two-to-five-year period.

In this case, students must complete all compulsory modules plus 60 credits from the list of optional modules during a two to five year period. The students should discuss their module choices with their Personal Tutor.

We recommend that students start with the core modules Prenatal & Newborn Development, Infant Development, Preschool Years and Applied Statistics for Health Research before moving onto their optional modules. The Research Project must be taken in the final year of study.

Compulsory modules







Optional modules












Please note that the list of modules given here is indicative. This information is published a long time in advance of enrolment and module content and availability are subject to change. Modules that are in use for the current academic year are linked for further information. Where no link is present, further information is not yet available.

Students undertake modules to the value of 180 credits. Upon successful completion of 180 credits, you will be awarded an MSc in Infancy and Early Childhood Development. Upon successful completion of 120 credits, you will be awarded a PG Dip in Infancy and Early Childhood Development.

Accessibility

Details of the accessibility of UCL buildings can be obtained from AccessAble. Further information can also be obtained from the UCL Student Support and Wellbeing Services team.

Fees and funding

Fees for this course

UK students International students
Fee description Full-time
Tuition fees (2025/26) £16,000
Tuition fees (2025/26) £36,500

Programme also available on a modular (flexible) basis.

The tuition fees shown are for the year indicated above. Fees for subsequent years may increase or otherwise vary. Where the programme is offered on a flexible/modular basis, fees are charged pro-rata to the appropriate full-time Master's fee taken in an academic session. Further information on fee status, fee increases and the fee schedule can be viewed on the UCL Students website: ucl.ac.uk/students/fees.

Additional costs

For Full-time and Part-time offer holders a fee deposit will be charged at 10% of the first year fee.

For flexible/modular offer holders a £500 fee deposit will be charged.

There is no fee deposit required for PG Dip and PG Cert applicants.

Further information can be found in the Tuition fee deposits section on this page: Tuition fees.

There are no additional costs for this programme.

UCL’s main teaching locations are in zones 1 (Bloomsbury) and zones 2/3 (UCL East). The cost of a monthly 18+ Oyster travel card for zones 1-2 is £114.50. This price was published by TfL in 2024. For more information on additional costs for prospective students and the cost of living in London, please view our estimated cost of essential expenditure at UCL's cost of living guide.

Funding your studies

Visit the funding and studentship pages of the UCL GOS ICH website for details of funding available to students, including the UCL GOS ICH bursary.

For a comprehensive list of the funding opportunities available at UCL, including funding relevant to your nationality, please visit the Scholarships and Funding website.

See all the ways you can fund your studies

Next steps

Students are advised to apply as early as possible due to competition for places. Those applying for scholarship funding (particularly overseas applicants) should take note of application deadlines.

There is an application processing fee for this programme of £90 for online applications. Further information can be found at Application fees.

When we assess your application we would like to learn:

  • Why you want to study Infancy and Early Childhood Development at graduate level.
  • Why you want to study Infancy and Early Childhood Development at UCL.
  • What particularly attracts you to the chosen programme.
  • How your academic and professional background meets the demands of this challenging programme.
  • Where you would like to go professionally with your degree.

Together with essential academic requirements, the personal statement is your opportunity to illustrate whether your reasons for applying to this programme match what the programme will deliver.

Please note that you may submit applications for a maximum of two graduate programmes (or one application for the Law LLM) in any application cycle.

Choose your programme

Please read the Application Guidance before proceeding with your application.

Year of entry: 2025-2026

Apply for this course

Got questions? Get in touch

UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL GOS Institute of Child Health

iecd@ucl.ac.uk

UCL is regulated by the Office for Students.