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University Rankings For PGCE

Hi,

I've been trying to find a ranking for all the universities that provide the PGCE course, but i haven't really been able to find any at all. I have a rough idea of the best unis for it, but i just wanted a recent ranking.

Anyone know where i can find one, or from experience can tell me the top 5, maybe even top 10?
Reply 1
There's one on the Guardian website for Education. The TDA website also has a feature that allows you to compare PGCE training providers which is quite useful.
Anyone who knows anything about education will tell you it makes absolutely no difference which university you attend to do a PGCE. You do not need to look at meaningless league tables. You should decide where you might like to work and train in that area as you will probably be offered a job at one (or both) of your placement schools.
Reply 3
I heard Exeter was quite good, but does this really matter? I know I haven't even started my undergraduate degree yet, but I've already looked at doing a PGCE in Secondary English at Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, IoE or King's. I've been browsing through courses based on location (close to home in the south-west). Is there really a PGCE league table?!
Reply 4
Mr M
Anyone who knows anything about education will tell you it makes absolutely no difference which university you attend to do a PGCE. You do not need to look at meaningless league tables. You should decide where you might like to work and train in that area as you will probably be offered a job at one (or both) of your placement schools.



I was doing my Students Associate Scheme, and one of the teachers was telling me about the different bands of pay that there are for teachers. he was saying that because he did a masters, and was a fully qualified engineer, he managed to get on the top band of pay as soon as he started.

so i was wondering if you did your pgce at one of the best uni's for pgce's, would it be a good bargaining chip to get started on a higher pay band.

I want to do mine in london, so i was thinkin either IoE of KCL, but i just wanted to know if there's a major difference or not
Reply 5
MDEH8176
I heard Exeter was quite good, but does this really matter? I know I haven't even started my undergraduate degree yet, but I've already looked at doing a PGCE in Secondary English at Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Southampton, IoE or King's. I've been browsing through courses based on location (close to home in the south-west). Is there really a PGCE league table?!



I haven't been able to find a league table anywhere, so i guess not
Reply 6
bballer4life
I was doing my Students Associate Scheme, and one of the teachers was telling me about the different bands of pay that there are for teachers. he was saying that because he did a masters, and was a fully qualified engineer, he managed to get on the top band of pay as soon as he started.

so i was wondering if you did your pgce at one of the best uni's for pgce's, would it be a good bargaining chip to get started on a higher pay band.

I want to do mine in london, so i was thinkin either IoE of KCL, but i just wanted to know if there's a major difference or not


Regarding this - it is completely up to the head of the school who employs you whether you get M1 (c.£20k) or M6 (c.£30k) or somewhere in between.

Bear in mind that this teacher you refer to may have managed to get a higher starting salary because he's an engineer and thus would teach physics, which is in high demand in most schools (as most physics/maths educated people find far better paid jobs outside of education!)

There is no immediate difference in PGCE providers; but it is worth seeing if your chosen course provider offers Masters Credits for doing the PGCE (Cambridge, for example, offers 50% of an MEd in the PGCE year, which you can then go on to complete within 2yrs)

The clichéd good PGCE places are Cambridge, Oxford & the IofE (London) but any good redbrick education department will be worth looking into. There's no guarantee that going to a 'better' PGCE provider will give you a higher starting salary, but it's worth asking at interview for your first teaching job - you lose nothing by trying and some of my Cambridge PGCErs walked into HoD jobs as NQTs because they'd done their PGCE at Cambridge (but they did have loads of prior teaching experience i.e. years as TAs etc, too, which might well have helped)


As for doing PGCE in London, remember that places like Tower Hamlets, Hackney and other slightly dodgy places are in London and may well be where your placement schools are - could you hack that whilst training?

All in all, have a look around: remember the TDA got into ridiculous amounts of trouble over the "start teaching on 30k" adverts recently because it's tripe and not true. Teachers will start on c.£20k and any more is a bonus.

Good luck with it
Reply 7
I started my search on the GTTR website, finding all the unis in my desired location (London) offering Secondary English. From there, I tried contacting students and read through Ofsted reports and looked at general rankings, but mainly to see what was being said about the unis. I didn't base my decision solely on ratings, not even close. It may have factored in at about 15%, but that's it. I also visited some of them to get a feel for the area. I considered Oxford and Cambridge as well, but it wasn't an ideal situation for me.

My personal situation it was ultimately affected my decision. I had to consider my partner, our financial situation, and the fact that I'm non-EU and will be about 6 months shy of qualifying for home fees. I also knew that I planned on completing a Masters, so I looked to make sure the uni offered MA credit and looked through their MA options, as I'd prefer to stay at the same uni (assuming all goes well) for my MA. In the end, I chose KCL, and I got in, followed by IoE, UEL and London Met.

As for any rankings/ratings. When I decided to put KCL first, their Ofsted wasn't fantastic with a Grade 2 (pretty much across the board), but it also turns out that they have really made some changes and now have a Grade 1 across the board.
bballer4life
I was doing my Students Associate Scheme, and one of the teachers was telling me about the different bands of pay that there are for teachers. he was saying that because he did a masters, and was a fully qualified engineer, he managed to get on the top band of pay as soon as he started.

so i was wondering if you did your pgce at one of the best uni's for pgce's, would it be a good bargaining chip to get started on a higher pay band.

I want to do mine in london, so i was thinkin either IoE of KCL, but i just wanted to know if there's a major difference or not


The teacher was pulling your chain. It is possible to start on a point on the scale higher than M1 but it has nothing to do with the university you attend or your engineering qualifications and everything to do with relevant experience working with children. Industrial experience is occasionally considered but you usually need to do five years in industry for every point you move up the scale (I had 13 years previous experience in the financial sector and started on M3). The Local Authority decides where you are placed on the scale and it is not within the discretion of the Headteacher to negotiate pay with you (although he or she could make a recommendation to the Governors who in turn could make representations to the Local Authority).

Both IoE and KCL are well regarded but, as you are studying mathematics, you will walk into a job anyway.

The information you were seeking is here:

http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/education/research/ceer/pdfs/gttg09.pdf
Clareicles
Regarding this - it is completely up to the head of the school who employs you whether you get M1 (c.£20k) or M6 (c.£30k) or somewhere in between.


Headteachers are bound by LEA guidance in state maintained schools.
Mr M
The teacher was pulling your chain. It is possible to start on a point on the scale higher than M1 but it has nothing to do with the university you attend or your engineering qualifications and everything to do with relevant experience working with children. Industrial experience is occasionally considered but you usually need to do five years in industry for every point you move up the scale (I had 13 years previous experience in the financial sector and started on M3). The Local Authority decides where you are placed on the scale and it is not within the discretion of the Headteacher to negotiate pay with you (although he or she could make a recommendation to the Governors who in turn could make representations to the Local Authority).

Both IoE and KCL are well regarded but, as you are studying mathematics, you will walk into a job anyway.

The information you were seeking is here:

http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/education/research/ceer/pdfs/gttg09.pdf



i don't think he was lying to me, and tbf, he only started teaching when he was 45, so he'd of had a lot of years in industry. i guess working with what you said, he could of achieved starting higher up the scale due to that.

the link doesn't work for me, but cheers for the advice anyway!
Clareicles
Regarding this - it is completely up to the head of the school who employs you whether you get M1 (c.£20k) or M6 (c.£30k) or somewhere in between.

Bear in mind that this teacher you refer to may have managed to get a higher starting salary because he's an engineer and thus would teach physics, which is in high demand in most schools (as most physics/maths educated people find far better paid jobs outside of education!)

There is no immediate difference in PGCE providers; but it is worth seeing if your chosen course provider offers Masters Credits for doing the PGCE (Cambridge, for example, offers 50% of an MEd in the PGCE year, which you can then go on to complete within 2yrs)

The clichéd good PGCE places are Cambridge, Oxford & the IofE (London) but any good redbrick education department will be worth looking into. There's no guarantee that going to a 'better' PGCE provider will give you a higher starting salary, but it's worth asking at interview for your first teaching job - you lose nothing by trying and some of my Cambridge PGCErs walked into HoD jobs as NQTs because they'd done their PGCE at Cambridge (but they did have loads of prior teaching experience i.e. years as TAs etc, too, which might well have helped)


As for doing PGCE in London, remember that places like Tower Hamlets, Hackney and other slightly dodgy places are in London and may well be where your placement schools are - could you hack that whilst training?

All in all, have a look around: remember the TDA got into ridiculous amounts of trouble over the "start teaching on 30k" adverts recently because it's tripe and not true. Teachers will start on c.£20k and any more is a bonus.

Good luck with it


yeah, i guess the placements i'll be sent to will be tough, but i did my sas placement at a pretty bad school, and i thought i could do that, but inner london is a different kettle of fish from gillingham lol

Yeah it's around £20k outer london, but goes upto £27k if you teach in inner london, which i'm not completely sure if i want to do yet according to thishttp://www.teachers.org.uk/node/11723 but i guess that might not happen since the government are freezing public sector pay soon.

But yeah, thanks for the advice, given me alot to think about.
Reply 12
Mr M
Headteachers are bound by LEA guidance in state maintained schools.



You're not wrong, however, as far as I understand it, the Headteacher has the discretion to pay you at anywhere on the MPS but yes, they will have to justify it to the LEA; some Heads are better at this (and indeed more inclined) than others. Hence my earlier point about not holding your breath about being on more than M1 at the beginning.

And if you're doing Maths, you'll be snapped up with no problems and it might be possible to negotiate starting on a higher level on the MPS when you go for your first job!
Here are a few league table rankingshttp://www.thecompleteuniversityguid...gs?s=educationhttps://www.theguardian.com/educatio...bles-2017#S290

I will be applying to the following:

1. University of Cambridge
2. University of Birmingham
3. Durham University
4. University of Southampton
5. St.Mary's University (Twickenham London)
Hello, what would you suggest for an international student with no UK degree? Which PGCE would be best for the international candidates to pursue in order to get the best shot at job interviews later on?
Original post by Clareicles
Regarding this - it is completely up to the head of the school who employs you whether you get M1 (c.£20k) or M6 (c.£30k) or somewhere in between.

Bear in mind that this teacher you refer to may have managed to get a higher starting salary because he's an engineer and thus would teach physics, which is in high demand in most schools (as most physics/maths educated people find far better paid jobs outside of education!)

There is no immediate difference in PGCE providers; but it is worth seeing if your chosen course provider offers Masters Credits for doing the PGCE (Cambridge, for example, offers 50% of an MEd in the PGCE year, which you can then go on to complete within 2yrs)

The clichéd good PGCE places are Cambridge, Oxford & the IofE (London) but any good redbrick education department will be worth looking into. There's no guarantee that going to a 'better' PGCE provider will give you a higher starting salary, but it's worth asking at interview for your first teaching job - you lose nothing by trying and some of my Cambridge PGCErs walked into HoD jobs as NQTs because they'd done their PGCE at Cambridge (but they did have loads of prior teaching experience i.e. years as TAs etc, too, which might well have helped)


As for doing PGCE in London, remember that places like Tower Hamlets, Hackney and other slightly dodgy places are in London and may well be where your placement schools are - could you hack that whilst training?

All in all, have a look around: remember the TDA got into ridiculous amounts of trouble over the "start teaching on 30k" adverts recently because it's tripe and not true. Teachers will start on c.£20k and any more is a bonus.

Good luck with it


Hello, what would you suggest for an international student with no UK degree? Which PGCE would be best for the international candidates to pursue in order to get the best shot at job interviews later on?

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