Clinical Education MA/ PGDip/ PGCert
Provided by King's College London GKT School of Medical Education
About the course
This programme provides participants, who have clinical professional experience, with the opportunity to pursue postgraduate education relevant to their professional interests and requirements. The programme aims to provide a distinctive element by combining work-based opportunities with theoretical underpinning, thus enabling participants to develop their own practice as clinical educators. Participants need to have regular teaching responsibilities as part of their role, because of course activities and also because of the programme’s focus on the connection between theory and practice in clinical education. Postgraduate Certificate The heart of the Masters in Clinical Education programme is the Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Education. As a recognised teaching qualification in higher education, the programme is dual accredited: successful completion of the programme awards participants Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and Membership of the Academy of Medical Educators via the expedited accredited application route. Course participants from a nursing and midwifery background will have the option of specific support in developing their teaching, as required by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. As a 60-credit Level 7 award, the Certificate is comprised of one 45-credit required module that encourages grounding in pedagogic thinking and practice, and one 15- credit option module of the participant’s choice. Postgraduate Diploma Upon successful completion of the Postgraduate Certificate, and with agreement from the programme team, participants can apply to continue their study into the Diploma level. Participants at this level can pursue one further required module and three option modules from a range of interdisciplinary and discipline-specific options. The basis of the Diploma is the module Using Research in Clinical Education. This module offers participants an insight and understanding into the methodologies and methods used to conduct enquiry in clinical education settings, and an opportunity to develop their ability to systematically analyse the existing research in order to understand more about pedagogical issues in day-to-day clinical practice. The second module at this level, Researching Clinical Education, which is required to continue onto the masters level but is otherwise optional at the diploma level, takes this a step further by encouraging participants to develop their own plan for designing and conducting an appropriate enquiry in their own settings. Colleagues with an existing Postgraduate Certificate in Clinical Education, or a similar award, from another institution, may apply for admission at this level by requesting an Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL). Masters in Clinical Education Once participants have advanced through the Postgraduate Certificate and Diploma stages of the Programme successfully, and by agreement from the programme team, they can register on the Dissertation Module to complete the Masters in Clinical Education. The dissertation, which consists of an extended piece of written work of between 10,000 and 15,000 words, enables participants to demonstrate their ability to plan, carry out and evaluate a piece of research into an aspect of their academic practice. It will be an original piece of work, which might, for example, present new evidence on a familiar aspect of teaching and learning; apply established leadership models or theories to a new context; or present an independent critique of an existing body of theory.
Base campuses
Waterloo Campus
Waterloo campus is home of the Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery and facilities for other faculties
Guy’s Campus
The Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, and the Institute of Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience are based at the riverside Guy's Campus, next to the Shard.
Please note that locations are determined by where each module is taught and may vary depending on the modules you study.
Regulating bodies
King's is regulated by the Office for Students
Teaching methods - what to expect
Programme modules are required face-to-face postgraduate seminar and workshop sessions, which require advance reading and preparation, as well as self-study outside the seminar sessions.
Some assigned group activities and self-directed activities must be completed outside seminar sessions.
Typically, one credit equates to 10 hours of work.
Most participants start with the Postgraduate Certificate and begin with the required module, which starts in late September or early October, and an options module, which can start between February and April, meaning that they would likely finish the Postgraduate Certificate in about 12 months.
The Postgraduate Certificate is 60 credits, which generally corresponds to about 600 hours of work. That breaks down typically to about 70 hours of postgraduate seminar sessions (at which attendance is mandatory; generally these are study half-days which are spread over the academic year), and a further estimated 530 hours consisting of self-study, assigned group activities, reading, consolidating learning from previous study days, and preparation for and writing of assessments.
The most challenging thing for most people is that they find it difficult to balance work and postgraduate study. It is an academically rigorous course, but people who are currently on the course and have finished the course have rated it very highly and feel that their teaching practice has improved as a result of the course. You are required to have an educational component to your professional role as part of this course. This means that you have some ongoing opportunities to teach, so that you can meaningfully put the ideas in the programme to use on a regular basis (and bring your experience as a teacher into your learning and your participation on the programme).
Assessment
- Coursework
- Essays
Assessment is by coursework; no examinations are conducted on this programme. Written assignments include academic essays; compilation of and reflection on evidence of teaching; successful completion of teaching observations.
The study time and assessment methods detailed above are typical and give you a good indication of what to expect.
Course accreditation
The programme is accredited: on completion of the postgraduate certificate, you will become a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). You will also be eligible to become a Member of the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME) upon application.
The study time and assessment methods detailed above are typical and give you a good indication of what to expect. However, they are subject to change.
Structure
Required modules
Courses are divided into modules, and students on this course take modules totalling 60 credits for the PG Cert, 120 credits for the PG Dip or 180 credits for the MA. PG Certificate: 60 creditsRequired modules
Optional modulesIn addition, you need to take 15 credits from a range of optional modules that may typically include:
PG Diploma: 120 creditsRequired modulesIn addition to meeting the requirements for the PG Cert, you are also required to take:
If you wish to continue to MA level, you are also required to take:
Optional modulesIn addition, you need to take between 30 and 45 credits from a range of optional modules that maytypically include:
MA: 180 creditsRequired modules In addition to meeting the requirements for the PG Dip and having already taken the module Researching Clinical Education (15 credits), you are also required to take:
King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.
Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.
Tuition Fees
UK:
Part time: £4,500 (PG Cert 2025/26); £4,500 (PG Dip 2025/26); £4,500 (MA 2025/26)
International:
Part time: £11,933 (PG Cert 2025/26); £11,933 (PG Dip 2025/26); £11,933 (MA 2025/26)
Please note, fees are based on each level of programme (eg. PG Cert, PG Dip, MA) and not per year. These tuition fees may be subject to additional increases in subsequent years of study, in line with King’s terms and conditions.
Deposit
- If you receive an offer before March, your acceptance deadline is 20 March.
- If you receive an offer between 1 March and 20 May, your acceptance deadline is one month from the offer date.
- If you receive an offer between 21 May and 15 July, your acceptance deadline is two weeks from the offer date.
- If you receive an offer between 16 July and 10 August, your acceptance deadline is one week from the offer date.
- If you receive an offer from 11 August onwards, your acceptance deadline is three days from the offer date.
Please visit our web pages on fees and funding for more information.
Additional Costs
In addition to your tuition costs, you can also expect to pay for:
- Books if you choose to buy your own copies
- Library fees and fines
- Personal photocopies
- Printing course handouts
- Society membership fees
- Stationery
- Travel costs for travel around London, between campuses and for project placements
- Graduation costs
Funding
To find out more about bursaries, scholarships, grants, tuition fees, living expenses, student loans, and other financial help available at King's please visit the Fees and Funding section .
Enquire
| Start date | Venue | |
|---|---|---|
| 01 Sep 2025 | Distance learning | Book now |