Recent research predicts that by 2030, 17% of the global workforce will hold occupations that require higher qualifications.1 Academic organisations and institutions worldwide need innovative leaders to meet this rising demand. Gain the skills to influence higher education policy and change with our postgraduate certificate, Higher Education Policy into Practice.

Expand the scope of your higher education career

Our online PGCert Higher Education Policy into Practice bridges the gap between professional and academic roles. You could aim for senior academic or professional roles-such as director, department head, academic dean, or vice chancellor-or one of many roles in government or for commercial partners.

What youll learn

Using a comprehensive understanding of higher education administration policy and practice, you can influence the policy-making process, manage policy implementation in your own context more effectively, and shape future policies.

Plus, you can articulate how alternative higher education futures could respond to social, political, and cultural changes.

Programme outcomes

PGCert Higher Education Policy Into Practice graduates are expected to have knowledge and understanding of:

How policy is formed at different levels and how this impacts practice, but also how practice can impact policy.

Ways that higher education has grown in the number of institutions and students globally, including current forms of the university and possible futures.

How equity has been articulated in academic literature, policy, and practice.

Design, the processes involved, the associated contemporary design theories, and how these ideas and ways of working can be used in context.

Data tools and frameworks to evaluate teaching, learning, and institutional practice.

Sociotechnical perspectives of learning environments connecting the social, physical, and digital.

This online PGCert gives you the skills to contribute to policy-making processes, implement policy into practice, and recommend future policy changes. Utilise your new knowledge in several roles that involve both professional and academic responsibilities.

The PGCert Higher Education Policy Into Practice can help you reach a position in senior management at a higher education institution or an organisation that works closely with the sector.

The programme is designed for students from a variety of backgrounds including academics and professional services. With the PGCert Higher Education Policy Into Practice, you can make a strategic move toward the next step in your career.

Additional roles include:

Communications and Marketing Manager

Head of Policy

Research Manager

Head of Professional Services

Head of Academic Services

Career support

Your relationship with the University of Birmingham will continue long after your graduation. To make the most of your future career prospects, we will help you gain the skills, knowledge, and attributes that employers are looking for.