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The University of Edinburgh: Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (Primary)

Institution The University of Edinburgh View institution profile
Department Moray House School of Education and Sport
Web https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying
Study type Taught

Summary

Primary is for graduates who wish to enter the teaching profession at primary school level. This programme is one route to qualified teacher status in Scotland.

The PGDE programme is academically and professionally focused, drawing upon the expertise of its faculty and institute. The programme is located within the Institute for Education, Teaching and Leadership (ETL). The Institute draws on a values-led approach to teaching, research and innovation, through the strength of the relationships with our partners, both locally and globally.

In particular, the Institute has expertise and professional impact in:

  • the changing role of teachers and leaders in a contemporary world

  • learning for sustainability

  • outdoor learning

  • widening participation

  • digital literacies

  • areas of curriculum development like STEM and STEAM education, all of which align with the GTCS Professional Standards

This is an intensive programme of study with half of this time spent in placement schools and the other half spent studying on University of Edinburgh campus. Through graduate-level study of education and professional placements, you will engage in being and becoming a teacher in Scotland.

The programme is designed to develop critically informed and confident teachers to meet the needs of our children and young people in the 21st Century. The PGDE programme aims to capture an interdependent view of the world and a deep commitment to sustainability and social justice for all. To achieve this, the pedagogies employed aim to provoke a cultural shift away from transmissive teaching to something more agential and socially transformative.

Through our university-led and school-based placement, our teaching and learning aim to engage with and challenge assumptions. We encourage and support our PGDE students to look inwards to their beliefs and assumptions and outwards to wider educational practices and policies, both nationally and globally.

Mental health and well-being partnership All initial teacher education programmes include access to our mental health and well-being programme.

This is provided through our unique partnership with children’s mental health charity Place2Be which helps you to support mental well-being in your classrooms and in yourself.

Accreditation Graduates are qualified to teach and eligible for provisional registration from the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).

Eligible graduates may join the Teacher Induction Scheme, a guaranteed, paid one-year probationary teaching post, or take up a Flexible Route.

Professional Graduate Diploma in Education (Scotland)

Edinburgh. Extraordinary futures await.

The University of Edinburgh is one of the world's top universities, consistently ranked in the world top 50, and placed 27th in the 2025 QS World University Rankings.

Our position as one of Britain’s leading research universities was reaffirmed by the results of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). The University of Edinburgh is one of the world’s top research-intensive universities, ranked 4th in the UK for research power (Times Higher Education, Overall Ranking of Institutions), with 90% of our research activity classified as world leading or internationally excellent in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.

Our …

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