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Postgraduate Taught

MSc Clinical Education

Please note: The below is for 2025 entries. Click here for 2024 entries.
UCAS code 1234
Duration 1 year full time
2 years part time
3 years part time
Entry year September 2025
Campus St Luke's Campus
Discipline Healthcare and Medicine
Contact
Typical offer

View full entry requirements

2:2 Honours degree

Contextual offers

Overview

  • Learn the craft of teaching from internationally renowned staff with strong research pedigree, with opportunities on each module to put your learning into practice.
  • This programme is specifically created for those wishing to develop their roles as clinical educators and is suitable for those from a wide variety of academic and professional backgrounds including medical researchers, academic clinical fellows, nurses, allied healthcare, public health professionals, and doctors.
  • You will be learning with a diverse array of healthcare professionals; offering a substantially wider perspective than many other courses are able to offer
  • Study the course in just one year, or study part-time over two or three years. Our blended (face-to-face and online) course means we can work around your priorities and the major service and time pressures you have enabling you to complete the course at your own pace
  • Accredited by the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME) and recognised by the South West Deanery (Health Education England)

Apply online

View 2024 Entry

Apply for individual modules 2025/26

Fast Track (current Exeter students)

Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL)

Open days and visiting us

Get a prospectus

Contact

Programme Director: Professor Alex Harding

Web: Enquire online

Phone: +44 (0)1392 72 72 72

Hear Professor Alex Harding talk about our postgraduate Clinical Education programme and the benefits that it brings.

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Top 10 in the UK for our world-leading and internationally excellent Clinical Medicine research

Based on 4* + 3* research in REF 2021

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Joint 1st in the UK for Medicine by Graduate Prospects

The Complete University Guide 2025

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Major capital investment in new buildings and state-of-the-art facilities

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Vibrant and active research student community supported by excellent pastoral and academic staff 

Accreditations

AOME logo
Society and College of Radiographers logo

This programme is Academy of Medical Educators (AoME) accredited. AoME accreditation means that anyone who successfully completes the course is eligible to apply for Membership of the Academy without the need to go through the full application and assessment process.

Four modules from this programme (HPDM103, HPDM104, HPDM105, HPDM142) are also approved under the College of Radiographers (CoR) Practice Educator Accreditation Scheme (PEAS).  This means that any radiographer who is a member of the Society of Radiographers and successfully completes these modules will be eligible to apply for PEAS accreditation through the CoR CPD Now platform without the need to go through the full portfolio-based application process.

Entry requirements

Normally a minimum 2.2 Honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline. A personal statement, detailing your reasons for seeking to undertake this subject, will be required. Relevant clinical or professional experience may be taken into consideration as evidence of equivalency.

Please visit our international equivalency pages  to enable you to see if your existing academic qualifications meet our entry requirements.

International students are normally subject to visa regulations which prevent part-time study. It is recommended that international students apply for the level of the final award you intend to complete i.e. PGCert, PGDip or Masters, due to the associated cost and requirements for a Tier 4 student Visa.

Accreditation of prior learning for Masters courses in Healthcare and Medicine

Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL) is a process whereby students, who have already gained relevant skills and knowledge prior to the start of their course, may be granted a partial credit exemption from their programme instead of unnecessarily repeating work. Find out more about APL

Entry requirements for international students

Please visit our entry requirements section for equivalencies from your country and further information on English language requirements.

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Entry requirements for international students

English language requirements

International students need to show they have the required level of English language to study this course. The required test scores for this course fall under Profile B2. Please visit our English language requirements page to view the required test scores and equivalencies from your country.

Course content

There is an increasing need for clinical teachers to hold formal qualifications. Our Clinical Education programmes are suitable for qualified health professionals or intercalating students who want to develop and accredit teaching skills. You’ll look at clinical education from a new and practical standpoint, based on the reality of delivering clinical education in modern healthcare environments.

You will spend time learning the craft of teaching. If you are not currently involved in teaching, the course will provide ample opportunity to regularly practice teaching in a safe environment with feedback from fellow students. Each module has practical activities that transform the words from the material that you read into something useful.

The themes running through the programme are a comprehensive introduction to clinical education, coaching and mentoring, principles of assessment and practical delivery of teaching. Specific modules also include Researching Clinical Education and Teaching in a Digital World. A research project also forms part of the programme.

Programme Structure

This MSc course can be studied on a full time basis over 1 year or over 2 or 3 years (part time), which may suit applicants who are already working full time. It is delivered at National Qualification Framework (NQF) level 7.

The programme is divided into units of study called ‘modules’ which are assigned a number of ‘credits’. To gain a Masters qualification, you will need to complete 180 credits at level 7. The credit rating of a module is proportional to the total workload, with one credit being nominally equivalent to 10 hours of work, a 15 credit module being equivalent to 150 hours of work and a full Masters degree being equivalent to approximately 1,800 hours of work.

It is also possible to exit with a PGCert after completing 60 credits of taught modules or a PGDip after completing 120 credits of taught modules. The list of modules below shows which are compulsory.

It is also possible to take individual modules as a standalone activity, either with or without the need to complete assessments.

Contact Days

Clinical Education MSc contact days 2024/2025

(please note - these timetables are draft and may be subject to change).

Please note: The last contact day and assessment deadline for the programme will be earlier than the actual end date of your registration with the University, to allow a period of time at the end of your active studies for further support and mitigation, if needed.

Modules

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

The following table describes the programme and constituent modules. Constituent modules may be updated, deleted or replaced as a consequence of the annual review of this programme. Details of the modules currently offered may be obtained from the University web site:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/study/postgraduate/courses/medicine/clinicaledmsc/

Compulsory modules

*If you are a part-time student you must take modules HPDM105 and HPDM103 in your first year. If you are a PGCert student, you then choose two of any of 15 credit modules to make up 60 credits in total. If you are a PGDip student, you then take all the remaining 15 credit modules to make up 120 credits in total.
**Accredited by the College of Radiographers. Please see Section 12 below for further information.

CodeModule Credits
HPDM103 Teaching Practitioner */**15
HPDM105 Education Essentials */**15
HPDM061 Researching Clinical Education 15
HPDM095 Introduction to Literature Reviews 15
HPDM104 Assessing Learning **15
HPDM142 Principles of Supervision, Mentoring and Coaching **15
HPDM109 Principles of Curriculum Design and Evaluation 15
HPDM110 Teaching in a Digital World 15
HPDM148 Independent Research 60

Fees

2025/26 entry

Fees are subject to an annual increment each academic year

UK fees per year: 

  • MSc  £12,100 full-time, £6,100pa part-time, £4,050pa part-time (3 years)
  • PgDip  £4,050pa part-time
  • PgCert  £4,050

Standalone module fees: UK: £1,150 per 15-credit module

International fees per year: 

  • MSc  £28,600 full-time, £14,300pa part-time, £9,550pa part-time (3 years)
  • PgDip  £9,550pa part-time
  • PgCert  £9,550 

Standalone module fees: International: £2,600 per 15-credit module

Scholarships

We invest heavily in scholarships for talented prospective Masters students. This includes over £5 million in scholarships for international students, such as our Global Excellence Scholarships*.

For more information on scholarships, please visit our scholarships and bursaries page.

*Selected programmes only. Please see the Terms and Conditions for each scheme for further details.

Funding and scholarships

UK government postgraduate loan scheme

Postgraduate loans of up to £12,167 are now available for Masters degrees. Find out more about eligibility and how to apply.

Scholarships

Details of scholarships, including our Global Excellence scholarships for international fee paying students, can be found on our dedicated funding page.

Teaching and research

Our purpose is to deliver transformative education that will help tackle health challenges of national and global importance.

Teaching methods

Teaching is backed up with comprehensive online support, support from your academic tutor and support from the many contacts you will make through the contact sessions. Teaching methods include:

  • Interactive arena sessions
  • Masterclasses from highly experienced teachers and educational researchers
  • Practical classes; Practice delivering teaching in a variety of styles
  • Tutorial / small groups
  • Lectures using PowerPoint and other technologies
  • Work-based teaching and learning
  • Using webcams to record your teaching
  • Viewing the teaching of others and giving feedback
  • Practical classes; Practice designing you own assessments
  • Maintaining a teaching portfolio. Collect evidence of your teaching as the course progresses and use it to apply for Membership of professional teaching bodies (HEA and AoME)

Research 

At the University of Exeter, our research is globally recognised and our partnerships with healthcare providers, industry and above all, the public, mean that this work is constantly at the cutting-edge of innovation in improving lives.  

Explore some of the many highlights of our research on ourresearch impact page. 

Learning

This programme enables students to interact with learners from every branch of medicine and at every stage. There are practical sessions on each module and the flipped classroom and hybrid learning approach offers something to suit everyone.

Face-to-face teaching is typically delivered over two days per module, with pre-reading, teaching practice, project work and assessments making up the remainder of learning activities.

Facilities

This programme is based at the St Luke’s campus in Exeter, where facilities include Life Sciences Resource Centre, the Clinical Skills Resource Centre (Heavitree Hospital site) and the Medical Sciences Laboratory.

The facilities at the University of Exeter have been specifically designed for delivering high quality teaching in this area, with bespoke lecture theatres and seminar rooms.

For students following the reporting or image interpretation pathway, there is a suite of PACS monitors allowing for very high resolution viewing of images, as well as low-intensity lighting to optimise viewing conditions.  Find out more about our Medical Imaging Suites.

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Careers

Who is this course for?

This course is for everyone with a passion to learn more about how clinicians are taught – and more importantly, how it can be better. Many of our students are already in employment in the healthcare sector/clinical academics. It has been specifically created for those wishing to develop their roles as clinical educators and is suitable for those from a wide variety of academic and professional backgrounds.

Employer-valued skills this course develops

This programme will enhance your opportunity to take on more demanding roles within medical schools or faculties of healthcare or in management roles within hospital trusts. The full Masters programme enhances opportunities for clinical educational research, PhD programmes and leadership roles within higher education and healthcare sectors and some of our MSc Clinical Education students have published from their assignments and dissertations.

Career paths (graduate destinations)

The types of careers that graduates go in to after studying MSc Clinical Education include those relating to research, teaching and policy.

Careers support

All University of Exeter students have access to Career Zone, which gives access to a wealth of business contacts, support and training as well as the opportunity to meet potential employers at our regular Careers Fairs.