The faculty is divided into three schools - the School of Early Childhood and Primary Education, located on the Peninsula campus, the School of Graduate Studies at Clayton and the School of Education, Gippsland.
The courses of study that can be undertaken in the Faculty of Education for a degree or diploma of the university vary depending on the school in which students enrol. The School of Early Childhood and Primary Education offers postgraduate and undergraduate courses in teaching and education for those intending to work in the early childhood or primary sectors; the School of Education, Gippsland provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses leading to teaching qualifications in primary and secondary teaching and school librarianship. Professional development courses designed for training personnel, nurse educators and other education professionals are also offered. Many courses are available by distance education, Australia wide. The School of Graduate Studies offers courses that are essentially postgraduate studies catering for students who have had some years of professional experience. For these students the faculty offers a wide range of subjects, many of which have an easy flexibility that encourages students to define their own interests and to draw on their considerable professional and life experience. These opportunities reflect a recognition that there is a mutuality and reciprocity in the contributions to learning that are made by both staff and students.
While the majority of students in the faculty are either intending to teach in schools or are teachers already, there is an increasing number of people who wish to study education for other reasons. Education takes place in the community in many ways and institutions, other than through schools, and the faculty's courses are increasingly attractive to educators in the fields of health, business, nursing, social work, industrial training, commerce, the law, public service, professional associations, tertiary institutions and community fields generally.
The faculty's tradition of scholarly research, professional education and community service is substantial, having been built up progressively since the faculty's foundation in 1964 and the faculty is constantly revising its courses and their constituent subjects.
As part of these revisions, the faculty has recently introduced a new degree, the professional doctorate (the Doctor of Education [EdD]) taking three to four years full-time or up to five years of part-time study. This degree program offers experienced and appropriately qualified educators the opportunity to upgrade their professional qualifications by engaging in study at a level equivalent to that of the PhD but involving taught courses and doing research for the production of a thesis, the prime purpose of which is to use novel research findings to improve professional practice and serve education better.
Along with this, the faculty's usual research degrees - the Master of Education and the Doctor of Philosophy - remain open to those who wish to engage in individually supervised courses of research leading to the submission of a thesis, the prime purpose of which is the extension of knowledge for its own sake.