During your studies

Contents

Accomodation

For information on student accommodation, please see:

If you receive an offer, you can complete your application for student accommodation online at the above website.

To register you will need to use your 7-digit GUID (Glasgow Unique Identifier) supplied to you. You can find this number in your applicant self-service or in your acknowledgement letter.

Attendance dates

See provisional dates for undergraduate study in 2024:

Please note, PGDE programmes have an earlier start date than undergraduate programmes. These programmes start orientation in early August and end in June 2025. 

Conversion course

We do not currently offer a conversion from primary to secondary education (or vice versa) for qualified teachers.

Additional advice can be found via The General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).

Course content & structure

Please visit our programme pages for more information.

Disability support

If you have a disability, do take advantage of the support offered by the University so that you may gain the maximum benefit from your professional training here. 

If you are unsure of your support needs, or of what might be available to you, please contact Fiona McGregor (see below) to arrange an informal meeting to discuss whether or not any particular arrangements are required.

Please note that if you have declared a disability, the University and placement schools have a duty to ensure that you receive all the necessary advice and support.  If you feel you do not wish to have your disability/requirements made known to University and/or support staff and/or placement schools, you will be asked to confirm this in writing.

Main Glasgow Campus: Please contact the School of Education's Disability Co-ordinator, Fiona McGregor, either by phone on +44 141 330 3401, or by email at Fiona.McGregor@glasgow.ac.uk.

Dumfries Campus: Please contact the School of Social & Environmental Sustainability’s Student Support Officer, Tariq Jankiewicz, either by phone on + 44 138 770 2135, or by email at socsci-studentsupport@glasgow.ac.uk.

Induction

Induction to undergraduate teaching programmes commences in September for most programmes.

Induction to PGDE teaching programmes commences in August.

Please visit our programme pages for more information.

Location

The School of Education is based in the St Andrew’s Building on Eldon Street on the University’s main campus in the West End of Glasgow (E14 on campus map).

The School of Social & Environmental Sustainability, where our Dumfries campus programmes are taught, is based in the Rutherford McCowan Building in Dumfries. 

Part-time, distance & online study

Currently, all our programmes are offered on a full-time basis and are primarily conducted in-person at the School of Education.

You can expect to be scheduled for classes anytime between 9am and 5pm, from Monday to Friday.

Placement in schools

The placement co-ordinators in your chosen programme organise your school placements through local authorities.

Students should expect travel times of up to 90 minutes from their term-time address to the school each way. This may be increased to two hours in exceptional circumstances and any student in this position would be contacted to meet with their Programme Leader and Adviser of Studies. Administrative staff will to try to redress lengthy travel in one placement with a shorter journey, if possible, for a subsequent placement.

The term-time address provided by students on placement request forms is used when placements are being arranged. Any student who changes address during the session must contact Programme Leader or Adviser of Studies to ensure staff are working with up-to-date information when arranging placements. Placements cannot be completed outside of Scotland.

Probation year: the teacher induction scheme

After graduation a one-year probation placement in a school is required to gain full registration with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS).

For further information see the GTCS website.

Reading list

For detailed literature and resources for our PGDE courses, please refer to our recommended reading list.

Recognition outside Scotland

Our Initial Teacher Education degrees are widely recognised outside of Scotland including England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and Canada.

If you intend to teach abroad after graduation, you should contact the teaching council for the relevant country to find out about their teacher registration requirements.

Registration

You will receive information in due course from the University on how to access your online student record. All students are required to register online.  Advice and guidance will be provided.  Your Student ID and temporary password and details of how to access your student record will be sent to you by email so please remember to keep your contact details up to date on UCAS track.

If you are not using a personal email address, please amend it through UCAS track otherwise you may not receive our communications. You will also receive further information about what it means to be a student at the University of Glasgow and information about induction, orientation and Freshers’ Week.

Find out more: Registration 

If you have not received this information by 29th August, please contact Student Services.

Second subject

Subject combinations available for the PGDE Secondary Education are:

  • French and German
  • French and Italian
  • French and Spanish
  • Spanish and French

There are currently no other combinations available.

The probation year is completed in the first subject in the course title.

Transfers

If you already are an undergraduate student of the University and you want to transfer into one of our undergraduate Initial Teacher Education programmes, you should in the first instance email Julie McAdam: Julie.E.McAdam@glasgow.ac.uk. 

If, however you are an undergraduate student outwith the University you are required to apply through UCAS (see application process). 

Direct entry to Year 2 or 3 is not available due to the specific structure of our programmes of study and placements.

Teaching programmes

Main Glasgow campus teacher training programmes

Dumfries campus teacher training programmes