Project details: Evaluation of the Impact of PCAP
Funding Body
Duration
2004 onwards
Description
Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice: Evaluation
The Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) is a part-time, work-based programme which all new lecturers at the University are expected to complete as part of their probationary development in the area of teaching and supporting student learning. Like similar programmes in other universities, it had been accredited by the Higher Education Academy as meeting a set of generic standards. The programme has been intensively evaluated since its inception in 2000 with a view to informing its development and identifying issues related to the development of teaching approaches and skills in academics who are relatively new to teaching.
Professional Standards in Teaching and Learning
This is a two-year development project funded through the Higher Education Funding Council’s (HEFCE) Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF) to develop professional development strategies and provision in support of teaching and learning in the University.
The main foci of activity are to:
- Enhance professional development provision for part-time staff and postgraduates with teaching responsibility;
- Extend and develop the current Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) for new lecturers (eg. through developing the current subject-based mentoring scheme, identifying appropriate pathways to and from PCAP such as routes to a full Masters, identifying alternative models and means of support for new lecturers, etc);
- Developing policies, approaches and provision for the continuing professional development of academic staff which can be linked more closely to factors in career progression; and
- Establishing a University-wide system of recording academic engagement in professional development activities.
