Graduate Certificate Health Professions Education

The Graduate Certificate in Health Professions Education builds upon and develops students' knowledge, skills, attitudes and professional values, in order to prepare them to assume the role of the educator, capable of designing engaging programmes of study and of faciltiating students' learning.

The specific aims of the programme are to enable students to:

• Realise their potential, engage their creativity, and build their confidence and self-esteem so that they can likewise enable their students to do the same by maximising the learning opportunities available to them.
• Acquire and apply selected theories, concepts, models and frameworks to enable high levels of judgement, discretion and decision making in health professions education. These include key academic ideas from curriculum and pedagogical theory, the psychology of learning and related perspectives in the sociology of education.
• Develop a critical awareness of relevant legislation in their respective professions, specifically, and the health system, generally, and relevant standards and requirements, or other criteria, for professional registration education programmes in their health profession. 
• Demonstrate the acquisition, synthesis, integration and application of knowledge from a select range of disciplines to inform, develop and innovate education practice in the healthcare professions. 
• Design, develop and deliver education and training programmes for their respective health professions.
• Develop curricula, cognisant of learners’ characteristics, programmes’ purposes and relevant contextual considerations, including the human, technological, infrastructural, financial and other resources available. 
• Develop effective communication skills in order to present balanced arguments and engage with confidence in academic and multi-professional debates in health professions education. 
• Conduct a comprehensive education and training needs assessment to support the provision of responsive, flexible and innovative education programmes in the health professions. 
• Act as an effective member of the education team and participate in a multidisciplinary team approach to health professions education. 
• Demonstrate the value and distinctive contribution of their profession through the generation of disciplinary knowledge and innovative educational practice. 

The programme is delivered by blended learning and comprises a number of workshops supported by Brightspace, UCD's virtual learning environment. A range of methods will be used to expose students to innovative and dynamic ways of facilitating and enhancing learning, including lectures,workshops, small group discussions, blended learning, case presentations and clinical simulation.  

Assessment will be continuous and of, for and as learning, and the methods employed will include student-led presentations, assignments and the design of a programme of study. 

Timetable

You can view the 2025/2026 timetable here.

Does this programme have an official conferring ceremony?

Please note there is no online or in-person conferring ceremony for this programme. Your parchment will be posted to you by UCD Conferring.

Funding

If the fees for your programme are being paid by a third party (full or partial), please ensure your funding organisation/sponsor/hospital contacts student.payments@ucd.ie. Please note this is not a student facing email address. 

Student Queries

If you have any queries about your fees, please contact the Student Desk:

www.ucd.ie/askus

https://www.ucd.ie/students/studentdesk/ 

Application Fee

Please note that all applicants are required to pay the €60 application fee. Your application cannot be processed fully unless the application fee has been paid.

More information about fees is available on the UCD website at the link below:

• General information about UCD Fees

Applicants who already hold a Masters Degree in a relevant subject may take the Graduate Certificate in Health Professions Education.  For nurses and midwives, the degree must be deemed suitable by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI). 

Applicants  must hold active registration as a health professional with the appropriate regulatory body.  

Applicants must have at least three years or equivalent clinical experience as a registered health professional prior to entry. This experience should be in clinical areas where students of the  applicant’s health professional discipline undertake placements as part of their pre- and post-registration education. 

Prior to commencing the programme, applicants must provide evidence that they have secured access to the teaching experience required to undertake it.  During the programme students must undertake at least 100 teaching hours  (at least eighty [80] classroom teaching hours and at least twenty [20] clinical teaching hours). The assessment of teaching skills in the context of professional practice hours must be completed under the supervision of an experienced health professional educator and, in the case of nurses and midwives, a Registered Nurse or Midwife Tutor. 

Opportunities must also be provided to observe the role of preceptors, lecturers in the health profession and other health care specialists who coordinate students’ clinical learning experiences and the assessment of learning in practice.

Documents Required

• Two academic references
• One professional reference
• Copies of academic transcripts from completed degree programme/s
• Completed Declaration Form with confirmation of teaching arrangements, confirming that:

Please note:

1. The applicant has secured at least 100 teaching hours (at least eighty [80] classroom teaching hours and at least twenty [20] clinical teaching hours).  This confirmation must be signed by the appropriate person(s) in the Higher Education Institution and/or Centre of Nurse or Midwife Education, and the Healthcare Provider Organisation providing the teaching opportunities.
2. The assessment of teaching skills in the context of the professional (clinical) practice hours will be completed under the supervision of a named experienced health professional educator and, in the case of nurses and midwives, a named Registered Nurse or Midwife Tutor (please provide name/s and contact details). 
3. Opportunities will be provided to observe the role of preceptors, lecturers in the health profession and other health care specialists who coordinate students’ clinical learning experiences and the assessment of learning in practice.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

RPL may be granted in respect of individual modules if applicants can demonstrate that the modules' learning outcomes have been achieved through prior credentialled or experiential learning. In some cases, where an applicant does not meet the prerequisites for entry to a programme, an RPL application may be considered. Further information can be found in respect of this here.

Part Time option suitable for:

Domestic(EEA) applicants: Yes
International (Non EEA) applicants: No

This interdisciplinary programme will prepare health and social care professionals to design and deliver programmes of study for undergraduate and graduate students of their disciplines. 

For registered nurses and midwives, who hold a masters degree, successful completion of the programme leads to registration in the Nurse or Midwife Tutors' division of the Register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland.