When it comes to postgraduate level qualifications, the likes of master’s degrees, PhDs and other kinds of postgraduate degree can be all that’s talked about. In reality, there are so, so much more kinds of postgraduate qualifications that you can study in the UK. One of these is what we’re going to look into today: the postgraduate certificate.
In short, a postgraduate certificate is a postgraduate qualification that takes about half a year to study full-time or about a year of study if done part-time. It’s worth 60 credits and therefore is worth about 1/3 of a master’s degree.
Continue reading to learn more about the postgraduate certificate, how it differs to other qualifications and how it relates to the well-known PGCE qualification.
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What is a postgraduate certificate?
In order to fully understand what a postgraduate certificate is, let’s first go through what “postgraduate” actually means.
The term postgraduate simply refers to a student who has already completed an undergraduate degree and is then pursuing another qualification at a higher level. You can learn more about this definition by checking out this page of the Cambridge Dictionary website.
In terms of qualification levels, this makes “postgraduate” at levels 7 and 8 or levels 11 and 12 in Scotland. The main qualifications at this level are postgraduate degrees, such as master’s degrees and PhDs, but there are a range of other postgraduate qualifications, including the postgraduate certificate.
You can learn more about qualification levels by checking out this Think Student article. For more on postgraduate degrees, have a look at this article from Think Student.
A postgraduate certificate is an academic level 7 or level 11 qualification in the UK. It may also be known as a PGCert or a PGC.
This qualification will usually take about half a year to study full-time or a full year to study part-time.
Postgraduate certificates are worth 60 credits, making them equivalent to about 1/3 of a master’s degree. Although they are still at the same qualification level as master’s degrees.
You can learn more about postgraduate certificates by checking out this page of the University of Hull’s website.
Postgraduate certificate vs postgraduate diploma
As a postgraduate qualification, there are many different qualifications that are equivalent to postgraduate certificates. Due to this, it can be difficult to tell how each of these qualifications differ from each other.
In this section, we’re going to zoom in on the qualification that’s most like postgraduate certificates and clear up any confusion there might be between these. This is the postgraduate diploma.
In order to compare the postgraduate certificate and postgraduate diploma, we first need to establish what a postgraduate diploma actually is. In the UK, a post graduate diploma is a postgraduate qualification that takes about 1 year of full-time study or 2 years of part-time study.
It is a level 7 qualification or level 11 in Scotland, making it at the same level as a master’s degree and a level above a bachelor’s degree.
You can learn more about postgraduate diplomas by checking out this Think Student article.
The main difference between a postgraduate certificate and diploma is the time they take. A PGCert will take about half a year to study full-time or a year part-time, whereas a PGDip will take a year to study full-time and 2 years to study part-time.
Also, a PGCert is worth 60 credits, whereas a PGDip is worth 120. Making a postgraduate diploma effectively double the qualification of a postgraduate certificate.
It also shows that the postgraduate diploma is equivalent to about 2/3 of a master’s degree, but a postgraduate certificate is only equivalent to 1/3.
Postgraduate certificate vs graduate certificate
Another qualification that may be confused with a postgraduate certificate is a graduate certificate. After all, they sound incredibly similar, and some may assume that they’re interchangeable terms. Although this is not the case.
The graduate certificate is a qualification of its own that’s very different to the PGCert. A graduate certificate is a qualification that students can complete after having done a bachelor’s degree as it trains you in a specific area of the same value as your bachelor’s degree.
In many ways, the graduate certificate is very similar to the PGCert. First of all, the graduate certificate is to take between 4 and 9 months to complete, which is fairly similar to a PGCert’s half a year to a full year to complete.
Both qualifications are also worth 60 credits. This suggests that they would have roughly the same workload requirements.
Also, to complete both of these qualifications, students will need to already have a bachelor’s degree. Thus, referring to the “graduate” part of both their names.
However, even with all these similarities, there is one fundamental difference between the PGCert and graduate certificate. This is their levels.
As previously mentioned, PGCerts are level 7 qualifications, making them worth 1/3 of a master’s degree. However, a graduate certificate is a level 6 qualification, making it at the same level as a bachelor’s degree, even though students still need one beforehand.
In summary, a graduate certificate and postgraduate certificate are virtually the same thing only at 2 separate levels.
You can learn more about graduate certificates in this Think Student article.
Is a PGCE a PGCert?
A PGCE is a level 7 qualification that allows graduates to obtain teacher training if they didn’t get a QTS at undergraduate level. In this teacher training, they will learn about general teaching practices as well as education research.
PGCE stands for Postgraduate Certificate in Education. This means that yes, it is a type of postgraduate certificate.
However, there are some differences between a PGCE and a general postgraduate certificate.
First of all, a PGCE must be completed at university and you will have to complete a placement at a school. This placement will need to be a minimum of 24 weeks and take place at two or more schools.
Most PGCerts can be undertaken online or even through hybrid learning methods, which wouldn’t be entirely possible with the placement.
Also, in terms of the costs, a PGCE is more similar to a bachelor’s degree. This is as it costs £9,250 for undergraduate students, just like each year of a bachelor’s degree.
Also, student finance works differently for PGCE students. As it’s a teacher training qualification, PGCE students would need to apply for undergraduate student finance rather than for a postgraduate loan. You can learn more about this by checking out this gov.uk page.
For more on PGCEs, have a look at this Think Student article.