PGCertHE, PoTHE and Fellowships

The LSE Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCertHE) is a teaching qualification intended for those relatively new to university teaching. The course is taken part time and is designed to be combined with normal academic responsibilities. 

The PGCertHE is a practice-based programme and is aimed at early career academics, including assistant professors, LSE fellows, assistant professorial lecturers and other colleagues who have substantive responsibilities for student learning. The PGCertHE is a requirement for newly appointed assistant professors with fewer than 3 years of teaching experience, unless they hold an equivalent qualification from another UK university. It needs to be completed prior to Interim Review.

Additionally, colleagues who are experienced academics but relatively new to UK higher education are encouraged to join the programme. 

You are eligible to join the TC503 programme if you:

• can attend at least 20 hours of PGCertHE sessions. Please note: the completion of the Associate Fellowship programme (TC501) counts for 10 hours towards this total.  [1] 
• can be observed teaching at LSE and
• have at least 20 hours of scheduled teaching during the year of enrolment (not including preparation time or office hours).  

[1] For career-track participants, completion of the New Academic Induction Programme fulfils your attendance requirement.

The PGCertHE requires participants to prepare a portfolio which includes:

• reflective pieces on the development of their teaching practice;
• short written tasks on effective disciplinary teaching and student learning;
• the development of a new or revised course design; 
• two teaching observations.

To facilitate preparation of their portfolios, participants are expected to attend regular workshops which explore different aspects of teaching and learning linked directly to the programme assignments. They also have the opportunity to attend a range of other workshops offered as part of LSE's Atlas programme. Upon completion successful participants are eligible for HEA accreditation at Fellow level.

The deadline for the completion of the TC503 pathway OYS (enrollment) is Tuesday 6 October 2020.

Please contact Dr Colleen McKenna – c.mckenna4@lse.ac.uk – or Chris Doughty –c.g.doughty@lse.ac.uk – for further information.

This programme aims to develop participants’ confidence in designing and delivering class and seminar teaching and providing feedback on student work.

The programme is accredited by the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA), which is part of AdvanceHE and offers national and international recognition for the award. Upon successful completion, TC501 participants are eligible for Associate Fellowship of the HEA (AFHEA).

The Associate Fellowship programme is aimed at early career teachers in higher education and is available to colleagues based at LSE who have a substantive role in teaching and supporting student learning. For example, you may be a GTA or guest teacher or you may have a student-facing role in another area of the School such as the Library.

This is a practice-based programme, so you need to be teaching (or delivering training) at least 10 hours across the year in a context in which you can be observed – once by a member of the Eden Centre and once by a peer. The observations can occur either in Michaelmas or Lent terms.

The programme is built around the following:

• attendance at a series of workshops (totalling 16 hours)
• assignments exploring participants’ teaching and disciplinary practices
• two teaching observations.

Associate Fellowship Programme participants will complete Module 1 of the PGCertHE which covers the following topics:

• planning your teaching year and introduction to small group teaching
• small and large group teaching in your discipline
• classroom management
• teaching quantitative subjects at LSE
• evaluating your teaching and students' learning
• providing assignment feedback for learning
• conceptions of student learning 

The deadline for the completion of the TC501 pathway OYS (enrollment) is Tuesday 6 October 2020.

Please contact Dr Colleen McKenna – c.mckenna4@lse.ac.uk – or Chris Doughty –c.g.doughty@lse.ac.uk – for further information.

If you think that you might like to participate in the PGCertHE then we encourage you to come along to one of our programme briefings (see information on briefing dates in the accordion below).

At the briefing you will meet the course team and they will talk through the programme structure and requirements and you will also have the opportunity to discuss any questions that you might have.

Programme enrolment

Enrolment on the PGCertHE is done through Moodle.

There are 2 steps to register on the PGCertHE:

Step 1: Enrol yourself on the Moodle site for this programme.

The name of the site on Moodle is ‘PGCertHE 20-21’ and the enrolment key is ‘Biggs2020’.  (Please note: the 2020/21 Moodle site will be available from September.)

If you encounter difficulties in enrolling on the Moodle site, please get in touch with either Chris Doughty c.g.doughty@lse.ac.uk or Colleen McKenna c.mckenna4@lse.ac.uk.)

Step 2: Complete the Opening Year Statement (OYS) and upload it in the ‘Build your portfolio’ section of the Moodle site. The OYS form can be downloaded from the ‘Introduction and enrolment’ section in Moodle. Further instructions are on the form itself. Please include your surname in the file name that you upload.

The programme handbook, which contain complete dates for the modules, will be available on Moodle.

The deadline for the completion of the OYS (enrollment) is:

• Tuesday, 6th October 2020

Briefings for the 2020-21 programmes will be held on the following dates:

• Wednesday 16/09/20, from 12:00-12:45 via Zoom 
• Tuesday 22/09/20, from 11:00-11:45 via Zoom
• The briefing will also be available as a recording. A link for those that wish to attend will soon be published here.

To learn more about our programmes or to register your interest for 2021/22, please do email us on the addresses below:

• Programme Director: Dr Colleen McKenna on c.mckenna4@lse.ac.uk
• or Chris Doughty, Programme Administrator on c.g.doughty@lse.ac.uk