Welcome to the Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) programme at University Campus Suffolk. We hope the time you spend on the PGCAP is both beneficial and enjoyable. The programme is based in the Department of Young People and Education, but involves significant inputs from colleagues from the Quality and Elevate teams, as well as contributions from colleagues across UCS.

The programme offers a discursive, interdisciplinary, collaborative and reflective learning environment in which you can think seriously about academic practice, especially about teaching and the support of student learning. The programme will encourage you to inspect, critique, develop and reflect upon your professional practice within the increasingly complex and ever changing Higher Education environment. The programme encourages sharing experiences and reflection upon those, alongside other perspectives including of your peers, mentors and tutors. Progression within the PGCAP proceeds from success on the core Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (LTHE) module to the Developing as a Reflective Practitioner (DRP) module. Successful completion of both modules leads to the award of the PG Certificate in Academic Practice.

The PGCAP is open to both new and experienced academics, as well as other professionals including staff with a more limited teaching role and staff in roles supporting learning at UCS and across the Learning Network Centres. Successful completion of the PGCAP will lead to a recognised teaching in Higher Education qualification, and gives eligibility for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

As initial professional development, the PGCAP is set within the national context of increasing professionalisation of teaching and academic practice in HE. The basis of national standards for HE teaching and learning are set out in the UK Professional Standards Framework (UK PSF) (see HE Academy link to the UK PSF ) and UCS supports the aim of the HE Academy in seeking to enhance the status and scholarly nature of learning and teaching. The UK PSF is a national flexible framework, with a descriptors-based approach for those involved in teaching and supporting learning. The UK PSF also acknowledges variety in teaching, learning and assessment practices to support and enable student learning.

The PGCAP also sits within the UCS professional recognition scheme, known as the UCS PASSPoRT (Pathways for Academic and Support Staff to Professional Recognition of Teaching) scheme, designed to systematically enhance the quality of teaching and learning support at University Campus Suffolk and to promote ongoing engagement in professional development within and beyond engagement in the PGCAP. Section 22 in this Handbook explains more on the UCS PASSPoRT.

Programme information and documentation is presented in the PGCAP Programme Handbook and there are separate, specific module guides available online. Module specifications and the mapping of the PGCAP programme against the UK Professional Standards Framework (UK PSF) are presented in the Appendices (in Appendix 2 and Appendix 4 respectively) to the Handbook. Access to all programme information is also possible via the virtual learning environment (VLE) ie on LearnUCS.

We look forward to working and learning with you on the programme.

THE PGCAP PROGRAMME TEAM