PgDip in Health Professions Education
€6,740
Enhance your career as you develop the knowledge and skills required to provide high-quality educational experiences for learners in an academic and/or clinical environment.
Postgraduate Diploma
1 year
Online - Part-time
60 ECTS
September 2025
About
Gain confidence and equip yourself with evidence-based teaching and learning strategies on the PgDip from RCSI Health Professions Education Centre. Deepen your understanding of the landscape around health professions education and contemporary learning theories, and gain practical expertise in techniques such as assessment and feedback methods, instructional design, educational evaluation and health professions education research.
Following a 'Community of Inquiry' pedagogical model, you will learn with and from peers, experienced clinicians and academics within the field of health professions education.
Learning will be supported through weekly synchronous (webinars, small group tutorials, teaching demonstrations) and asynchronous (videos, interactive web-based content, discussions, self-directed reflections) activities.
Learning resources will be guided by best practice in higher education including universal design for learning (UDL) principles (AHEAD, 2021), and contemporary approaches to formative and summative assessment (National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 2021).
This course is offered part time over one year.
Learn to deliver high quality education in an academic or healthcare setting
Explore specific considerations of teaching and learning within healthcare
Enhance your delivery with practical tools and techniques
Suitable for
This programme is designed for both experienced and early career educators working in the healthcare industry and who support learners in clinical and non-clinical settings.
What you will learn
How learning takes place, and can be nurtured, in health professions education settings
Evidence-based teaching and learning methods
Assessment and feedback in health professions education
How to evaluate sessions, modules and programmes
What our students say
Testimonial
"I quickly learned that knowledge and experience is not enough to be a truly effective teacher, and at the end of this course I feel better equipped to support our medical students on their journey."
"I was really impressed by the excellent resources ... RCSI knew how to make it easier for their students. It was a marvellous journey – truly eye-opening and transformative at a personal and professional level."
Faculty highlight
Biography
Dr Jenny Moffett, Programme Director
Dr Moffett is based within RCSI's Health Professions' Education Centre (HPEC). She supports faculty development through workshops, online learning and accredited teaching courses.
Find out more
Register your interest
Course information
This programme will provide you with the skills and knowledge to:
- Demonstrate a critical understanding of key principles and theories of health professions education
- Critically appraise and reflect upon their teaching in order to develop a personal teaching philosophy within a health professions education context
- Apply their understanding of appropriate theories of learning to their own teaching contexts
- Integrate theory and practice in relation to learning, teaching and assessment strategies
- Demonstrate an awareness of curriculum design issues to promote an inclusive environment
- Use a student-centred learning approach in his/her teaching practices
- Draw critically upon appropriate literature to inform teaching practice
- Design curricula including learning and teaching methodologies, assessment strategies and evaluation models in accordance with participants’ own discipline requirements
- Design a technology enhanced learning (TEL) framework to support student-centred learning in a blended learning environment
- Evaluate self-development as a teacher through a systematic and critical application of established frameworks describing the features of the effective and excellent educator
- Demonstrate development in generic capabilities such as communication skills relevant to a range of teaching roles including online learning activities (communication and collaboration) with students (e-moderation skills)
- Plan and maintain continuing development as an educator through critical application of professional development processes such as reflective practice and peer review
This one-year part-time programme takes place over two academic semesters: two modules are completed in the first semester (September-December) and two modules are completed in the second semester (from January onwards).
In the first semester you will be introduced to health professions education, and what it means to build your identity as an educator. Module one offers a foundation in educational theories that help to explain how learning takes place, and can be nurtured, in health professions education settings. Module two provides in-depth learning around evidence-based teaching and learning methods which can be used in a variety of health professions education settings.
In the second semester, you will be introduced to the topic of assessment and feedback in health professions education, as well as how to evaluate sessions, modules and programmes.
The programme modules are as follows:
|
Module name |
Credits |
Assessment method |
|
Introduction to Health Professions Education |
15 |
Online activities (individual and group)/teaching demonstration |
|
Principles of Teaching and Learning |
15 |
Online activities (individual and group)/teaching demonstration |
|
Assessment as/for/of Learning in Health Professions Education |
15 |
Online activities (individual and group)/teaching demonstration |
|
Curriculum Design and Evaluation |
15 |
Online activities (individual and group)/teaching demonstration |
September 2025 intake live sessions (all times Irish time).
Please note: this schedule is tentative and subject to change.
- Orientation: 19 - 26 August 2025 (live orientation session on Tuesday, 26 August 2025, 10am-12pm)
- Module 1: 26 August - 23 October 2025
- Module 2: 21 October - 19 December 2025
- Module 3: 6 January - 5 March 2026
- Module 4: 3 March - 7 May 2026
Assessment is continuous and via online activities (individual and group) e.g. teaching demonstration, reflective portfolio.
We are proud to be a recognised University of the National University of Ireland (NUI). All RCSI programmes are accredited by the NUI.
Recognition by Ministries and bodies in all jurisdictions must be determined by the individual applicants.
We are pleased to confirm that a number of our recent graduates who are domiciled in the United Arab Emirates and in the Kingdom of Bahrain have successfully had their certificates recognised by the Ministry of Education in their respective countries.
Admissions
To apply for the Postgraduate Diploma in Health Professions Education, you must:
- Hold a Bachelor's degree (if you don’t hold a Bachelor's degree, see the recognition of prior learning pathway).
- Be working in the healthcare industry.
If you do not have an undergraduate degree at QQI level 7 or above you may still be eligible to apply through recognition of prior learning (RPL). RPL is the assessment of knowledge, skills and competence previously acquired.
Learning occurs in many contexts, including work, involvement in social and community activities, or learning through life experience generally. RPL does not give credit for experience as such; rather it considers the learning that was acquired as a result of the experience.
RPL may be used to gain:
- Admission to courses/programmes where a person may not have obtained the standard entry requirements.
- Exemptions from course modules which duplicate the learning outcomes an individual has already demonstrably acquired through prior learning.
You must meet the English language requirements (unless exempt): IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent score on another standardised test (certified proof should be uploaded with your application; see below for exemptions).
Exemptions may apply for:
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) through English in a country where English is the majority native language.
- Applicants who have completed their school or undergraduate studies (three or more years) in an English speaking institution in a country where English is not the majority native language and where an IELTS score of 5 or more was a requirement for admissions to the programme.
- Applicants who have been working in a country (three years or more) where English is the majority native language or for an employer where English language is the official language.
- Graduates of an RCSI Undergraduate, Masters or Professional Diploma programme in Dublin and Bahrain.
Please note: Certified proof must be uploaded as part of your application.
- Student fees €6,740
|
Year 1 |
Date |
Fee |
|
1st payment |
On acceptance of offer |
€2,000 |
|
2nd payment |
30 November |
€2,370 |
|
3rd payment |
31 January |
€2,370 |
Please note
- Fee includes all resources, access to our award-winning online learning portal and access to extensive RCSI-only databases.
- Fee includes an NUI fee.
- Fee is payable via the above schedule, where relevant. If you have outstanding fees you will not be entitled to receive your grades or be eligible to progress and or graduate (VLE and Library privileges will be withdrawn in these cases).
- RCSI accepts no obligation to refund any fee, or part thereof, in respect of a student who chooses to withdraw from a programme.
- If you choose to withdraw from a programme you are liable for full fees owed for the seat on that programme.
- All NUI parchments are issued in Latin; you will be required to pay an additional fee of €50 to NUI if you wish to have a parchment published in English.
- Fees are subject to review annually.
- If you are being sponsored or funded by your employer you should upload a funding confirmation letter in the document upload section on the application portal.
How to apply
Applications for this programme are currently closed. For more information, please register your interest using the form above.