This course is for 2025/26 entry.
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Work towards recognition as a Fellow of Advance HE as part of your studies
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Shared campus with St George’s Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in the UK.
Healthcare and Biomedical Education PGCert Course overview
Benefits of this course
The course aims to help you develop your approaches to teaching and assessment and support you to become a confident, scholarly, reflective professional, prepared for the opportunities and challenges you will encounter in your career as an educator in higher education.
Award
You can select to apply for one of the available exit points for this course.
- Postgraduate Certificate (PGCert)
Who is this course for?
We are open to applications from three categories of applicants:
- Category 1 applicants are City St George's employees teaching healthcare or science subjects who need or wish to obtain the PgCert HBE qualification. This includes staff who are required to undertake the course as part of their probation.
- Category 2 applicants are those primarily teaching City St George's students who are not employed by the University, most notably Clinical Teaching Fellows (CTFs) or those holding Clinical Education Fellowships with substantive teaching responsibilities.
- Category 3 applicants are clinical or practice educators who teach City St George's students, hold a City St George's honorary contract and meet the teaching criteria stated above.
Places on the course are limited and priority during admissions will be given to Category 1 applicants.
In addition to these employment requirements, applicants must also meet the other entry criteria for the course including teaching role requirements.
As a specialist professional course, and to meet the requirements of our accreditation, applicants must fulfil our entry criteria as stated on the application site. We do not accept applications from medical or academic Foundation Year doctors (e.g. FY1, FY2).
Accreditation
Accredited for recognition of Fellowship of Advance HE
If you are employed by a non-Advance HE member, you will normally need to pay an additional fee directly to Advance HE to register your Fellowship. This fee is currently £220 and is not included in the PgCert course fee. Most universities in the UK are members of Advance HE while NHS Trusts are not Advance HE members.
Upon successful completion of the course and ratification by the Board of Examiners in November each year, you will be registered by the course team on the Advance HE database of completers. At this stage you will be asked to confirm your current employer. If you are liable for this additional accreditation fee you will be invoiced directly by Advance HE.
Structure
You will complete the following three modules to achieve the required 60 credits for the award of Postgraduate Certificate over a 12-month period.
Subject to approval during reaccreditation, the modules are assessed as follows:
Module 1: Principles of Healthcare and Science Education is assessed by a 700-word statement of your teaching approach and a 2000-word reflective essay based on the collection and analysis of student evaluation data for a recent period of teaching.
Module 2: Practising Healthcare and Science Education is assessed by three assessments: a virtual poster and 10-minute oral presentation, an assessed teaching observation in practice and one 1500-word reflective essays on assessment and feedback practice.
Module 3: Continuing Professional Learning in Healthcare and Science Education is assessed by a 700-word revised statement of your teaching approach and a 2000-word small-scale project proposal for an enquiry into teaching and learning.
The course is assessed as Pass/Fail and all assessments must be passed to pass the course.
Core modules
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Principles of Healthcare and Science Education (15 Credits)
This module will introduce some of the ways in which learning theory can be used to develop principles of effective learning and teaching relevant to your practice in healthcare or science education. The module will focus on practical opportunities to apply these to your teaching as well as support to evaluate the effectiveness and inclusiveness of your teaching and learning approaches.
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Practising Healthcare and Science Education (30 Credits)
This module will build on the foundational principles of learning and teaching that were explored in the Principles of Healthcare and Science Education module but with an emphasis on reflecting on your experiences of practising effective learning and teaching in a range of disciplinary contexts with diverse student cohorts.
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Continuing Professional Learning in Healthcare and Science Education (15 Credits)
The aim of the final module is to help you integrate and embed what you have learnt during the first two modules into your future professional learning and identity in the wider context of both your profession and higher education.
Teaching and assessment
Teaching is undertaken in intensive blocks rather than on a regular weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Dates for the next academic year are normally published in July/August. Induction and pre-course reading will be provided from October.
The 7 teaching blocks are normally 1 to 2 days in length depending on the module. The total number of days of teaching for the course is 9.5 days over the 12-month enrolment in addition to induction.
We use a blended approach to the delivery of teaching blocks with, normally, one day onsite and one day online.
In both face-to-face and online teaching we use a combination of lecture, individual self-directed and peer-to-peer learning activities.
Fees and funding
Fees for academic year 2025/26
Postgraduate Certificate
(PGCert)
Part-time
(full course fees)
Home/UK: £1,700
Part-time (full course fees)
Home/UK: £1,700
Career
How to apply
Entry requirements
UK
Applicants for the HBE PgCert will normally meet the following entry requirements:
- Hold a degree in a subject relevant to medical, healthcare or biomedicine with a minimum second-class degree (2.ii) or pass (MBBS);
- Not registered for a qualification of City St George’s, University of London or other institution of equivalent standing during their enrolment on the course;
- Are actively involved in a substantive educational role that may include teaching or learner support, instructional design, assessment, and/or curriculum development in a practice or university setting during enrolment on the course. This is normally equivalent to 2 days of education-focused activity per week (pro rata). Educational activities to meet this entry requirement must be for undergraduate or postgraduate students enrolled on a higher education course and should not include clinical supervision or other post-registration continuing professional development teaching hours. At least 50% of these teaching hours must be specifically for City St George’s, University of London students;
- If relevant, have completed Foundation Year training (FY1 and FY2);
- Evidence proficiency via the International English language Testing System (IELTS) or Pearson’s English Language test within 2 years prior to admission. Applicants must achieve an overall score for IELTS of 6.5 (with at least 6.5 in writing and 6.0 in other 3 components) or an overall score for Pearson’s of 59 (with at least 59 in writing and at least 51 in other 3 components);
- Either, Category 1, City St George’s, University of London employees who need or wish to obtain the PgCert HBE qualification. As university employees, postdoctoral researchers are included in this category and are eligible to apply, but subject to the approval of the grant holder/Principal Investigator for whom they are working, and only if consistent with the terms of the funding body;
- Or, Category 2, employed to teach City St George's, University of London students but are not employed by the University, most notably Clinical Teaching Fellows (CTFs) and those appointed under other Clinical Education Fellowships who meet the minimum entry criteria in relation to their educational role;
- Or, Category 3, practice educators who teach City St George's, University of London students, hold a City St George’s, University of London honorary contract and meet the teaching criteria as stated above.
International qualifications
We also accept qualifications from other countries for postgraduate study.
Application process
All applicants are required to evidence in their application and personal statement a substantive teaching and/or learning support role when making an application. For applicants in Category 2 or Category 3 this is normally equivalent to 2 days of education-focussed activity per week (pro rata).
Educational activities to meet this entry requirement must be for undergraduate or postgraduate students enrolled on a higher education course and should not include clinical supervision or other post-registration continuing professional development teaching hours. At least 50% of these teaching hours must be specifically for City St George's.
The course team are not able to arrange teaching opportunities for applicants to enable them to fulfil the teaching hours requirement. Further opportunities for contributing to skills or PBL teaching and assessment (e.g. OSCEs, SBAs, SAQs) at City St George’s may be advertised to participants at the beginning of the course.
Before beginning your application please check the entry criteria of the course to ensure you meet the required standards.
Access our online application system
Select the relevant application link and create an account:
- Applications for 2024 entry are now closed. Register interest to be notified when applications open for 2025.
- Once you have created an account complete the application form and upload any relevant documents. You can save a partly completed form and return to it later. Please make sure you complete all sections. Please make sure that the information you provide is accurate, including the options you select in menus. Your application must include the following information and relevant documents:
- Your employment history, including your job title and employer for the job held at the start of the course in October
- Proof of your undergraduate qualification or equivalent (e.g. copy of degree certificate or transcript)
- Proof of your employment (e.g. in form of reference from or on behalf of your employer/line manager, role offer letter). This should be if possible redacted to exclude salary or other personal information
- Proof of required teaching responsibilities if not stated in proof of employment as above (e.g. this can be in the form of a written reference from or on behalf of your employer/line manager)
- Proof of funding and full contact details for the person who should be invoiced for fees, if not self-funding for applicants who are not employed by St George’s, University of London (e.g. details are likely to include name, email and purchase order number)
Applications that do not include this information will not be referred to the Admissions Tutor until this information is provided and this will delay a decision on your application.
- Add pgadmissions@sgul.ac.uk to your address book to ensure you do not miss any important emails from us.
- When you have checked that your application is complete and accurate, click ‘submit’.
You can track your application through your online account.
Key application dates
- Applications open on 1 July 2025
- Applications close on 14 September 2025
- Assessment will conclude and decisions will be communicated to applicants in late September/early October
- Term starts in mid to late October,
This course is not currently open for applications.
Your application (including your personal statement for the course) should clearly state how you meet the employment and teaching criteria. Applicants who do not meet stated teaching and employment criteria will not normally be admitted to the course. Admission to the course is normally very competitive.
Please note that because of the prioritisation of applicants during the admissions process we may not confirm an offer of a place until the advertised admissions window closes.
Our academics
Your studies are supported by a team of committed and enthusiastic teachers and researchers, experts in their chosen field. On occasion we also work with external professionals to enhance your learning and appreciation of the wider subject.