Accreditation of Doctoral Professional Development Courses - Policy statement
The College requires all doctoral students (PhD, MD[Res] and EngD), to achieve a minimum of four Graduate School credits, by the Late-Stage Review (LSR), in order to satisfy the Professional Development Attendance Requirement. Credits should be accumulated as follows:
- By the Early Stage Assessment (ESA) - 2 credits
- By the Late Stage Review (LSR) - a further 2 credits
Further information about course types and the credits attributed to them can be found on the Graduate School’s attendance requirement webpage.
Some departments, as well as CDTs and DTPs, provide professional skills training to postgraduate students, complementing the Graduate School’s offer. These courses may be delivered internally by members of academic staff, academic staff within partner HEIs, external consultants, funding bodies, employers of Imperial Graduates or industry representatives.
The Accreditation Procedure allows these departments to accredit the training research students have undertaken and gain the required credit(s).
Applying for Graduate School accreditation
Please note that there are two separate routes for departments and programmes to apply for accreditation. Expand the accordions below to find out which form you should complete.
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- Departmentally organised courses for cohorts e.g., CDT/DTP programmes
- For all other support services departments/units
- Key criteria for evaluating courses requesting accreditation
Once a request for accreditation has been received, the Graduate School’s Manager of Administration will pass them to the appropriate Graduate School Programme Leader for consideration. The GS Programme Leader will consider the course material, deciding whether accreditation and the level of that accreditation, should be recommended.
All comments and feedback will then be passed on to the Head of Pedagogy before ratification is sought from the Strategic Planning and Operations Committee (SPOC).
Accredited courses due to run annually are required to submit the evaluation/feedback collected from students every year to the Graduate School.
The Graduate School will maintain a database of all courses which are granted accreditation.
If you have any questions or queries regarding the accreditation process, please contact Dr Magdalena Jara, Principal Teaching Fellow & Head of Pedagogy.