Continuing Professional Development at UGHE  

Faculty Development Policy and Procedure  

Educational Development and Quality Center 

Introduction  

As outlined in the UGHE Academic Legislation, UGHE endeavours to create an academic environment that promotes excellence and supports professional development for each faculty member. Faculty professional development is centred around providing continuing professional development (CPD) opportunities for faculty members to maintain, develop, or enhance knowledge, skills, and professional performance, ultimately to improve the quality of education provided at UGHE. These CPD opportunities include training, workshops, forums, and webinars, both offered internally by UGHE, and by outside providers.  

This document outlines how faculty development is implemented at UGHE and the support offered to faculty by UGHE for professional development.  

Continuing professional development at UGHE  

CPD at UGHE can be broadly categorised into the following areas:  

• Internal training for UGHE faculty (FT, PT and adjunct) 
• Training which is offered to external stakeholders and partners of UGHE 
• Forums, webinars and guest lectures 

UGHE faculty development includes:  

• Pedagogical training, including mentorship, health professions education, curriculum development, assessment and evaluation, and teaching approaches including simulation, team-based learning and case-based clinical learning   
• Notifying faculty of external professional development opportunities, including courses and workshops run by partners 

UGHE also opens some CPD offerings as detailed above to external stakeholders and partners. External stakeholders and partners include:  

• Faculty from regional universities including the University of Rwanda and Addis Ababa University and other partner universities from around the world from which visiting faculty come to teach at UGHE 
• Healthcare professionals in Rwanda from teaching and regional hospitals 
• Professional associations or bodies such as the Rwanda Medical and Dental Council, the Higher Education Council and medical specialty associations in the region 
• Partners in Health staff 

As well as holding CPD training, UGHE also holds regular webinars, forums and guest lectures. These are open to non-academic and administrative staff as well as faculty. While these are not formal training, topics covered are relevant to UGHE’s mission and vision and ensuring academic excellence. Events include:  

• E-learning webinar series 
• UGHE Quality Matters forum 
• Departmental guest lecture series 
• Book talks   

Implementation of CPD at UGHE: responsibilities  

Needs assessments and development of CPD training 

The Educational Development and Quality Centre is responsible for faculty development at UGHE, which includes the design, development and implementation of continuing professional development training. The EDQC will conduct periodic needs assessments to determine priorities for faculty development. These needs assessments include faculty surveys and discussions with Academic Unit leaders. Faculty can also suggest CPD topics to the EDQC for future implementation. 

CPD training may also be designed, developed and / or implemented by partners working in collaboration with the EDQC. This may occur when external expertise is required.  

Any Academic Unit at UGHE may wish to run a CPD training for faculty and/or partners. Should a Unit wish to run a training, they should notify the EDQC and include the aims and audience of the training using the CPD Credit Application form. This form should be downloaded, completed and returned to the EDQC who will then review the training and provide feedback and support. The form will also serve as the application to RMDC to have CPD credits assigned to the training (see section below Continuing Professional Development Credits for more information on how to apply for CPD credits).  

The CPD training organisers are responsible for inviting participants, course logistics, establishing a course page on Canvas, UGHE’s LMS, if required, keeping attendance, and creating and distributing certificates. Support from other departments, including Communications, IT, e-learning, campus hospitality, etc can be sought out depending on the type of training and specific requirements. 

Attendance and evaluations 

The EDQC keeps a record of all CPD training at UGHE, including attendance. Once a training is complete, the course organiser(s) must send a list of participants who completed the training to the EDQC.  

To receive a certificate and associated CPD credits (see section below Continuing Professional Development Credits for more information on credits assigned to trainings), at a CPD training organised by UGHE, a participant must have attended at least 70% of the training. Some CPD training may have specific requirements to receive a certificate, including completion of assessments, discussion boards, or quizzes. These requirements will be made clear to participants at each training.  

For external training, attendance requirements and issuing of certificates are at the discretion of the organiser.  

In most cases, it is not compulsory for faculty to attend UGHE-run or external CPD courses. However, participation in University affairs is part of the promotion criteria for faculty at UGHE, and CPD training attendance will be reviewed when a faculty member is applying for promotion. Attendance may also be reviewed when Academic Units are undergoing inspection, accreditation or evaluation by external bodies. Faculty are therefore strongly encouraged to attend CPD opportunities.  

There may be some instances where some faculty are required to attend a CPD training by their Academic Unit Chair, Dean, or the EDQC if the training is integral to the success of the Academic Unit or academic program, or if the training is relevant to specific roles the faculty holds, for example mentorship training for faculty who mentor students.  

The EDQC, alongside any other course organisers, will conduct post-training evaluations of UGHE-run training via a feedback survey sent to all participants.   

Continuing Professional Development Credits  

UGHE is accredited by the Rwandan Medical and Dental Council (RMDC) to offer Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits for all participants of faculty development courses. Details of the CPD policy in Rwanda can be found here.  

To apply for CPD credits for a course or training, UGHE must apply to the RMDC using the CPD Credit Application form. This form must be completed by the course organiser. Once complete, the course organiser shares the form with the EDQC and the EDQC sends the form to the RMDC for review and approval.  

Once CPD credits are granted for a training, the course organiser must ensure course participants receive a certificate with the course details and CPD credit amount. The UGHE Communications Department can assist with creating the certificate.