Project-Based Learning (PjBL) is widely recognised as a powerful approach to developing essential technical and professional skills in STEM education while also providing students with practical experience. Yet implementation faces many challenges; how to design technical activities to support students’ skill development as well as align with learning objectives; the impact of uncertainty and open-endedness on student learning and staff confidence; the resource intense nature of this approach; the need to support students with both the social and emotional aspects as well as the technical material. Can we avoid PjBL being an annoying distraction within the curriculum for staff and students and make it a fun and impactful part of any STEM degree course? 

Foundations of Teaching, Learning & Scholarship for STEM PGTAs & Early-Career Teaching Academics in HE.

Postgraduate Teaching Assistants (PGTAs) and early career teaching academics (such as PDRAs with teaching responsibilities) play a vital role in delivering high-quality teaching across engineering and STEM programmes. At institutions such as UCL, where programmes are academically rigorous, interdisciplinary, often pedagogically innovative and with high student numbers, consistent and well-prepared teaching support and scholarship is essential to student success.

This three-day course provides a structured introduction to effective teaching and methods for self-evaluation in engineering and STEM contexts in higher education. It is designed specifically for PGTAs and early career practitioners who are teaching, or intending to teach, in laboratories, workshops, tutorials and project-based modules. The course recognises the particular challenges of teaching within complex programme structures such as the UCL Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP), where project-based learning, interdisciplinary collaboration and modelling-intensive curricula demand clarity, alignment and confident facilitation.

Engineering and STEM education are undergoing rapid transformation, driven by technological change, evolving graduate expectations and new approaches to curriculum design. Alongside this, there is growing recognition that educational innovation benefits from rigorous research. This one-day course provides a structured introduction to engineering and STEM education research for early-career academics, doctoral researchers and teaching-focused staff seeking to engage in scholarly inquiry.

The course introduces the foundations of discipline-based education research (DBER) and the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), clarifying what counts as robust research in STEM contexts. Drawing on published studies emerging from the UCL Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP) and the facilitators’ editorial and research experience, participants explore how curriculum development, assessment (re)design and classroom innovation can generate publishable research questions at module, programme or institutional level.

Mathematical Modelling: Transforming Engineering Mathematics Education through Real-World Problems and Applications

Mathematics in engineering programmes is often delivered as a service subject, with varying degrees of integration across disciplinary modules and professional contexts. However, when the connections between abstract mathematics concepts and engineering applications are not made explicit, this may result in students having gaps in conceptual understanding. This two-day course supports educators to address this and to reposition mathematics as the language for engineering modelling, analysis and judgement in complex systems. 

The course explores how topics such as calculus, linear algebra and data analysis can be reframed through authentic engineering and scientific problems with social, environmental and economic dimensions. The programme combines research-informed perspectives from mathematics education and problem-based learning (PBL) with studio-based curriculum design workshops, enabling participants to develop teaching strategies across curricular and classroom levels.

Strategic Leadership in Engineering Education: An IEP-Inspired Executive Programme for Senior Academic Leaders

This 1.5-day strategic leadership programme is designed for senior academic leaders from universities beyond UCL, including Programme Directors, Heads of Education, Vice Deans (Education), and Heads of Department. It offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with the senior engineering education leadership of the UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences while learning from one of the UK’s most significant curriculum transformation initiatives: the UCL Integrated Engineering Programme (IEP). 

The course combines strategic insight with high-level peer exchange. Participants will explore how UCL designed and implemented large-scale programme reform, embedding problem-based learning, systems thinking, authentic assessment and cross-disciplinary collaboration within a coherent institutional framework. Attention is given to governance, change management, academic culture, and sustaining transformation over time.