Professional Practice in Higher Education MA

Bath Spa University

This flexible Master’s course is designed to support your continued professional development through a range of module options, and offers both intermediate qualifications (PGCert/Dip) and external (Advance HE) accredited status (for BSU staff with suitable teaching practice in HE only). You'll choose modules based on your role and interests and study over a two to five year period. The course is suitable for academics, professional services staff and research students and can build on previous relevant PGCerts (in HE practice) , SEDA PDF award or HEA Fellowships via accreditation of prior learning. As a staff member or research student, the PPHE programme will help you meet the key challenges of working in the rapidly changing world of higher education while gaining credit and postgraduate qualifications for your professional development. These challenges – of teaching, supporting student learning, employability, sustainability, new technologies, team management, enterprise, quality assurance and external accountability – range across the whole business of higher education, and can rarely be addressed in isolation. They raise many questions about how best to enhance teaching and research within particular contexts, and about how managers and administrators can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of current practices, not least in terms of addressing students’ needs and aspirations, enriching their learning experiences, and raising the enduring value of their learning outcomes.What you'll learnOverviewBy sharing ideas, knowledge and expertise about our professional practices, we can deepen our understanding of the challenges we face, and realise opportunities to make improvements through innovations and the adoption of best practices. The PPHE programme will help you evidence your commitment to professional development, and enhance the quality of your work, as well as the development of higher education in your workplace.OpportunitiesNetwork and share knowledgeYou’ll have opportunities to network, and share knowledge and experience within a community of practice focused on understanding and enhancing higher education. Career developmentThe PPHE programme is designed to support the development of both academic and professional staff, teaching, managing or supporting HE students, at a time when evidence of professional development is increasingly expected of all staff, not least for new appointments and promotions. The programme provides academic credit for CPD and further study connected with your role, and the ability to build on prior learning in this area towards a higher qualification and recognition. New academic staff at Bath Spa will take a core selection of the modules to gain a specific PGCHE qualification and FHEA status as part of their contract, but are welcome to continue with the PPHE programme to gain higher qualifications, as are those who have gained HEA fellowships through PRO-SPACE or similar recognition schemes.