Faculty development through higher degrees: AMEE Guide No. 180

Faculty development in medical education may take different forms and approaches ranging from standalone workshops and short courses up to longitudinal programs and postgraduate qualifications, such as Certificates, Diplomas, Master's and PhD degrees in health professions education (HPE). Many places offer staff development opportunities to help people to learn how to teach health professional students more effectively. Yet higher degrees in HPE are expected not only to enable graduates to be better teachers or assessors but also to act on a strategic level to support institutional directions to advance teaching, learning, assessment and scholarship in HPE. This guide is for people who wish to develop programmes to provide a more systematic and deeper training for those people that see themselves as professional health professions educators and indeed, the leaders of the future. The guide discusses the rationale, plans, process of implementation and evaluation of postgraduate programs in HPE in ten phases. Different variables should be considered with respect to the local context, institutional support, readiness of expertise, availability of resources, alignment with the strategic plan of the college/university and methods to measure the impact of these PG programs.