Medical Education (Taught)

The MSt in Medical Education is part of University of Cambridge Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) award-bearing suite of postgraduate awards in Medical Education for educators, educational leaders and researchers. The MSt builds on and provides progression from the very successful PG Certificate and PG Diploma courses in Medical Education.

Increasingly, doctors, dentists and other healthcare professionals are seeking flexible career pathways that allow them to develop a portfolio of work in areas of specialty or interest– education being one of these. The part-time MSt in Medical Education has an emphasis on educational development and research activity, providing opportunities for participants to put their educational knowledge to use in their own context(s) of practice.

The programme is only open to those who have successfully completed the University of Cambridge Postgraduate Diploma in Medical Education.

The course is delivered through blended learning methods using a combination of face-to-face sessions requiring attendance in Cambridge, synchronous online teaching sessions, self-directed learning and supported through a virtual learning environment [VLE].

This course is for Medical professionals who are seeking career pathways that allow them to develop a portfolio of work in areas of speciality or interest. In addition, applicants will be medical, dental or healthcare professionals who are engaged in education and training activities commensurate with their level of experience and as is relevant to their professional roles and responsibilities. The MSt is suitable for ‘early career’ educators as well as those with more experience.

The programme aims to develop individuals who are able to recognise and respond to opportunities to develop their own and others’ educational practice through the considered design and implementation of a small-scale educational research or development project.

This will include:

• exploration of project design principles, including methodological choices

• familiarisation with a range of educational research, development and evaluation methods

• purposeful and in-depth engagement with their chosen project design methodology and linked methods

• purposeful engagement with approaches to data selection, data generation and data analysis methods (linked to their chosen design)

• rehearsing different ways of communicating complex ideas in written/verbal/graphic form for different audiences (eg academic audience, professional audience, members of the public etc)

By the end of the MSt in Medical Education, students should be able to demonstrate:

• a capacity to purposefully design, implement and critically appraise an educational project that has the potential to inform or change practice

• an ability to position their project in relevant policy/practice contexts and to provide a coherent account of the conceptual and methodological choices they have made in design and implementation

• the ability to communicate complex and novel ideas in accessible ways, for a range of audiences and purposes

• awareness of personal responsibility and professional codes of conduct throughout all stages of the project, working in transparent and ethical ways.