Barry,
 
I've come across this discussion before and personally have reservations about exempting colleagues from a PGCHE on the basis of Academy registration. Quite a lot of it, depends on what is included in the PGCHE.
 
A PGCHE that I once was responsible for, included 'Effective Research in Higher Education', included postgraduate research supervision in its core for most participants, and paid particular attention to the research literature influencing L&T in the HE sector (or so we hoped!). On the basis of experience as an Accreditor for the Academy, (and at the time for the ILTHE), I must say I would not have found the individual route to cover all of the above as full as we did in the PGCHE.
In that case, the institution would have been badly advised to equal a programme that includes all these additional areas, to Academy registration, and so I advised strongly against it.
 
At the same time I have -again as an accreditor, it really is a highly educational job- also seen a wide range of Pg programmes, a few of which concentrate mostly on the practice of learning and teaching, based on the current experience of the participant, and although (for instance)  theory has a place in that context, it is very much of an underpinning nature. In some of those cases, I could well imagine that Academy registration might be seen to cover the probationary requirement.
I have found in practice that if the prospective participant gives your PGCHE team a copy of their Academy application, you're halfway down a proper AP(E)L route already, which could be the start of finding a solution to the policy question.
 
Where it becomes more difficult is if there is a discrepancy between probationary requirements and the ILO-s of a PGCHE...
 
So what I am trying to say is that the old mapping exercise is probably going to work best if you really want to answer the technical question of whether Academy registration covers the probationary requirements of your institution.
 
What I really enjoy about this discussion is that you're also looking to compare between institutions: another form of peer review to underpin teaching standards. Now there is an enhancement role for the Academy on offer...
 
Best,
 
Gwen van der Velden
Director of Learning and Teaching Enhancement
University of Bath


From: Heads of Educational Development Services [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barry Jackson
Sent: 25 August 2006 12:59
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: HEA registered practitioner status as exemption from programme

Apologies if you’ve already got this message through another jiscmail list

 

Colleagues,

At Middlesex, we have a number of categories of new teaching staff that are exempted from taking the normally mandatory PGCert HE. These include, for example, people that have previously acquired a similar SEDA/ILTHE/HEA accredited qualification or one of the other professional qualifications recognised by HEA.

 

At present we don’t have a clear policy about how to respond to people who have acquired HEA registered status through the individual route - should such people be exempted from the PGCertHE? We are currently discussing this issue with a view to clarifying policy.

 

I’d be very interested to hear from colleagues on the list:

- any views you have about this question, and

- what policy other institutions have on the matter

 

Regards

Barry

 

Professor Barry Jackson

Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of Learning & Teaching

Middlesex University

North London Business Park |Oakleigh Road South |  London N11 1QS

 

tel. +44 (0)20 8411 5018