Designing Impactful PGCert in Higher Education Courses : A Practical Guide for Staff Development

This guide to PGCert in Higher Education covers design, delivery, evaluation, and development of staff programmes. Using Rossi’s roots-to-shoots model, it spans values, context, content, assessment, and evaluation, offering tools, case studies, and strategies for impactful, inclusive, and globally relevant course design.

Designing Impactful PGCert in Higher Education Courses is the first guide to focus fully on the design, delivery, evaluation and ongoing development of Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education (PGCert) provision. Combining practical tools with critical reflection, it addresses a longstanding gap in the literature on taught staff development programmes. Written for those leading a PGCert, teaching on one, or developing a course for the first time, this book is a companion for purposeful and values-led PGCert work. It uses ‘PGCert’ as an umbrella term for related taught staff development programmes internationally (e.g., PgCAP, PGCLTHE), many of which align with professional recognition routes such as Advance HE Fellowships. Structured around Rossi’s roots-to-shoots learning design model, the book explores five interconnected stages of PGCert design: Values, Context, Content, Assessment and Evaluation. While grounded in the UK higher education context, it speaks to global audiences and addresses contemporary challenges including inclusion, professional recognition, digital innovation and evidencing impact. Drawing on over two decades of practice as an educational developer and PGCert course leader, Virna Rossi brings together a wide community of colleagues to share evidence, case studies and adaptable tools for use in local contexts. This is a book that those involved in designing, running and evaluating PGCert provision will return to again and again, using its ideas and tools to make a demonstrable difference in practice.