The Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PGCert TLHE) is a University qualification open to all academic staff and postdoctoral researchers. Successful completion of the programme leads to the award of Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), in addition to the University Award of PGCert TLHE. The programme will start online in Hilary term 2021.
The PGCert TLHE is a part-time, one-year course which has been designed to fit with academic workloads. There are two programme streams: one for the sciences, and one for the humanities and social sciences. The format of the PGCert for 2020-21 will include scheduled online live workshop sessions alongside asynchronous online activities; there will be opportunities for participants to work together virtually in small groups and to engage in regular online live discussions with their cohort and the programme tutors. We are also hoping to run some face-to-face workshops towards the end of the programme, depending on University guidance at that time. Further details of the session dates are available on the CTL website.
The PGCert is now in its third year of operation and feedback from past participants has shown a positive impact of the programme on colleagues' teaching practices. Below is a comment from a PGCert participant 2018-19:
The PGCert course offered me the chance to reflect on my teaching practices, to learn from others, and to engage with the latest research on teaching in higher education. I’m already using many of the tools and techniques that I discovered. I’d thoroughly recommend the course to anyone looking for a space to think, collectively and critically, about what we do in our classrooms and why.
If staff in your department are engaged in any curriculum design work (eg developing a course for approval; taking a course from approval to first iteration; redesigning an existing paper) then I would particularly encourage them to consider applying to join this programme. A significant element of the PGCert is a requirement to fully develop a pedagogic design for a paper/course/module. We have designed the programme so that academic staff who are already undertaking curriculum design activities can do this work as part of the PGCert, thereby gaining the opportunity to receive expert support and feedback on their work.
The deadline for applications is Friday, 16 October 2020 for a January 2021 online start.
Further details of the programme and a link to the application form are available on the CTL website.
Queries about the application process should be directed to claire.brewer@ctl.ox.ac.uk.
