UNIPED-100 KURS
FOUNDATIONAL COURSE IN
UNIVERSITY PEDAGOGY
Are you employed on qualification terms? Do you wish to develop as a teacher in higher education?
The course Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, a foundational course in university pedagogy for academic faculty, provides you with tools to further develop as a teacher, and fulfills the requirement for documentation of your foundational pedagogical competence in higher education.
Everyone who completes the course achieves documentation of foundational pedagogical competence, which is a requirement for all teachers at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
Registration for COURSE 2025-2026 is now opeN
The deadline to register is April 26th 2025 at 12:00
MANDATORY SESSIONS 2025-2026
Introductory session Fall 2025:
The introductory session is held physically in Tromsø on September 18th from kl. 12.30-15.30 for English speaking participants.
Mid-term session 2025
The mid-term session is physically in Tromsø, on January 30th from 12.30 to 15.30. Participants can also choose to participate digitally if needed.
Mid-term session 2026
The mid-term session is physically in Tromsø, on January 22nd from 12.30 to 15.30. Participants can also choose to participate digitally if needed.
Concluding conference 2025:
The concluding conference will be held digitally on April 23rd from 08.00 to 16.00.
Concluding conference 2026:
The concluding conference will be held digitally on April 22nd from 08.00 to 16.00.
PREREQUISITES FOR PARTICIPATION
TEACHER/SUPERVISOR
The course is for you who are interested in developing yourself as a teacher, for you who are employed on qualification terms, and for you who wish to apply for promotion to professor and lack documentation of your foundational pedagogical competence in higher education. The course and the course assessments are rooted in your own teaching, supervision or leadership responsibilities.
We offer a separate course for PhD candidates in Norwegian and English. We also have a course in research supervision.
ATTENDANCE
A prerequisite for participating in the course is that you attend the introductory session, one mid-term gathering, and it is mandatory to attend the concluding conference to complete the course.
SCOPE: 200 HOURS
The workload of this course is 200 hours. This includes course days, selectable modules and workshops, meetings with mentor and mentor groups, as well as your own development project
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR YOU AS A PARTICIPANT
What will I learn in this course?
By completing this course you will be able to further develop your own knowledge, skills and your competence as a teacher in higher education. The following learning outcomes are designed to support you in regard to this further development.
Knowledge
-Be acquainted with current national and local steering documents related to teaching and learning in higher education.
-Be acquainted with different learning theories and learning designs.
-Be able to explain the difference between the instruction paradigm and the learning paradigm.
-Be able to explain the importance of alignment between learning outcomes, learning activities, and assessment for the students’ learning.
-Be able to explain how to facilitate the students’ learning process.
-Be able to explain the three forms of assessment (diagnostic, formative, summative).
Skills
-Be able to activate students through various means of teaching and supervision (for example lectures, seminars, webinars, discussion forums, laboratory excercises, supervision and assessment).
-Be able to develop and critically apply student evaluations and peer review of teaching to promote students’ learning.
-Be able to critically analyse one’s own and other’s pedagogic competence, as well as one’s approach to students.
-Be able to justify and develop one’s own perspective on teaching and learning based on relevant theory, subject didactics, and research on learning in higher education.
-Be able to work systematically on developing relevant learning outcomes, learning activities
and assessment methods based on academic aims and the student’s different prerequisites. This applies to one’s work individually as well as together with colleagues.
Abilities
-Be able to document evaluations and the development of one’s own university pedagogical competence.
Will I be credited hours for taking the course?
In the “Retningslinjer for fordeling av arbeidstid for ansatte i undervisnings- og forskerstillinger” (case S 23/22 from the university board), it is stated that “Tid til å oppfylle krav til utdanningsfaglig kompetanse, inntil 200 timer, trekkes fra total arbeidstid før fordeling mellom utdannings- og FoU-tid.” Therefore, we recommend that you discuss with your immediate manager about incororating as much of this course as possible into your work schedule.
Should I take this course or should I make a teaching portfolio?
Your foundational pedagogical competence in higher education will be approved whether you complete the course or develop a teaching portfolio that is approved. Result approves completion of the course whereas a teaching portfolio is assessed by a committee appointed by your own unit.
There are specific requirements for designing a teaching portfolio, which you can read more about here. For those who work at UMAK, there are separate guidelines for the portfolio, which can be found under points 4.5.8 and 4.5.9 in the same document.
Seeing as both the course and a teaching portfolio provide documentation of your foundational pedagogical competence in higher education, there is no administrative difference between these two when applying for promotion to professor. One argument for choosing to develop a teaching portfolio is that you will have experience with this type of assessment – a teaching portfolio is the form of assessment when applying for promotion to professor and to ‘merited teacher’. Some faculties offer support in the development of a teaching portfolio. Some reasons for taking the course are that you follow a pedagogic course, you will receive support along the way, and that the primary aim of the course if that you will be able to further develop as a teacher in collaboration with others after the course – the latter point is related to two of the three pedagogical criteria for promotion to professor.
I have a part-time position at UiT. Can I take the course over more than a year?
Yes, if you are hired at UiT The Arctic University of Norway on a part-time basis you can choose whether you wish to complete the course in 1, 2 or 3 years. We suggest carrying out the development project in your final year. During registration you will be asked if you plan to work on the development project this academic year or later – this is because we need to know how many course participants will require a mentor for the pedagogical development project.
What does the pedagogical development project entail?
The pedagocal development project is the very core of this course, and you are expected to spend approximately 70 hours on this. It it not completely different from a small research project in that you base the project on question and work systematically to answer it. The development project should be closely connected to your own practice, and it should be related to the students’ learning. You could for instance start by thinking about whether there are things you wish to test in your teaching that you have pondered about for a longer period or have learnt about in the course, or whether you see an area with potential for improvement based on your own observations or via student evaluations.
Examples from previous projects:
-Testing new teaching methods for greater student activity
-Develop digital learning resources
-Develop courses for other teachers, for instance teaching assistants
-Closer collaboration with students in the design of teaching and assessment
-Revision of study plans
Contact us

