Can you lecture at university without a teaching qualification?

[Stitchybitch79]

I currently work as a counsellor, but I have a psychology M.A.

As a counsellor we have supervision, and my supervisor is encouraging me to apply at universities to teach, and says an M.A enables me to teach undergrad or M.A level in counselling or psychology.
I've never heard of this,and I will speak to her about it further but I don't have teaching experience or qualifications. Years ago I taught one class as an assistant to the main lecturer, just while I was doing my M.A to help, but aside from that.

Does anyone know any more about it?

I'd love to do it (and I am quite good at things like this) but I really don't know where to begin with it or if It's possible.

My supervisor advised me that she taught at a university without a qualification in teaching, but that to teach at a college you need one.. I find it all quite confusing!

Nope. PhD students often teach undergraduate classes. Definitely no teaching quals

where are you? in the UK generally, for HE you can teach without a formal
qualification, although most Unis are insisting core staff undertake a specialist course/qualification.

most use casual staffing who will contribute the odd lecture/help with marking. maybe this is a good place to start?

Yes you can, though you may well be encouraged to pursue a HEA qualification (which is done through case studies of your teaching etc). At University level they really value real life experience of a profession.

I teach on a post grad course without formal teaching qualifications - my professional qualification is sufficient.

Yes, you can. I know people who have done this. If you're doing a lot of teaching, the uni themselves might pay for you to do a teaching qualification with them (I forget what this is called but I think it's Post grad certificate level). How easy it is to get a uni to take you with no teaching qualification I don't know though.

I got a permanent job as a junior lecturer at one uni and then as a senior lecturer at a second without a teaching qualification. It was a condition of both jobs though that I get it ( I left the first job before I got it but started the course when I had my senior post). I know loads of people on permanent lecturer jobs with no teaching qualification but doing the course in their first year.

I've taught on undergrad too in the past.

At our university everyone has to do a seriesof compulsory training sessions before they can teach (around three half days) and are encouraged to do a post graduate certificate but you can teach without it.

Quite often a teaching qualification is a 'desirable' rather than an 'essential' in the job descriptions I see.
As others said, often the uni will provide training which sometimes works towards a pgcap or pgcert.

The latter can also help you gain HEA fellow status.

My Dad has had a long career as a lecturer at various quite prestigious Unis without any teaching qualifications at all

Yep, you can. Most unis will ask you to get one though, and they fund and facilitate it. Pg cert in higher education, and fellowship of the HEA is the usual route. Teachers don't usually because their PGCE is sufficient.

I've a similar profession and MSc in it. I also lecture. As PP have said it's the professional qualification that enables me to lecture on the course. Need to be accredited as per professions training standards.
My colleague was offered teaching training in post.

I am a qualified teacher who lectures.

I was asked to study for my MA and also gain my fellowship in HEA, as others have said.

You can.

Maybe your supervisor means associate lecturer type work.
Coming into an existing course and delivering one lecture or seminar, sort of thing.
You don't need any teaching qualifications for that, usually.

I have wondered about this. I am very pleased to hear that most universities encourage gaining a teaching qualification.

Just because you known a lot about a subject does not mean you can teach it. Teaching is a skill and any help in learning how to do it must be a good thing.

Universities are becoming increasingly keen that their lecturers do a course/gain certification for "teaching" which has driven DH bonkers at his university. He has a PhD, 25 years experience of undergraduate and graduate level instruction, Full Professor status, dean level administrative status etc, etc etc, and yet his university has decided this isn't enough to tick their box of "instructor preparedness."

My Dh is a senior lecturer with nearly 30 years' experience, teaching undergrads and posgrads and supervising PhDs, and he doesn't have a teaching qualification.

It's a funny one, isn't it?
My MSc course provided an opportunity to write and deliver a seminar, then reflect on it.
I've been an associate lecturer at several different institutions.
I have trained at a University to facilitate adult learning.
I've done a week long course in teaching at my university but it isn't accredited.

That might be fairly typical for some lecturers.

Considering the tangential responses, op, you might ask the same thing in the academic common room

I would hope that everyone who steps into any sort of teaching role in a university is now suitably qualified with the relevant teaching PGCE qualifications
Quality of teaching is far more relevant to a student than the research that the university conducts.
And so many students complain about the poor quality of teaching in universities.

Getting PhD students to teach is an absolute joke. It’s not fair on them or the students. Pay lecturers to teach and support them properly with adequate training to do the job.
In my hobby I book people to lecture on a certain subject and the quality provided by qualified teachers is much better than those who simply know their subject well.

I really interested in this. People keep telling me I should become a journalism lecturer but I have literally no idea how I’d step out of a newsroom and automatically know how on earth to teach 100 teenagers. I’d not have a clue how to deliver a lecture. I’m surprised there’s no obligation to at least do some form of teaching course if you don’t have the relevant experience.

It's changing now. JuneOsborne's answer above would be typical for many subject areas (for undergraduate courses at least), and a number of universities are expanding their support and numbers of those needing to take postgraduate teaching qualifications. There are metrics on teaching that are more to do with student satisfaction and employment outcomes at present (i.e. not with a specific remit to capture the teaching qualifications that staff hold), but I believe these awards are due to be revised and re-awarded in 2023, and currently more downplayed than they were a few years ago, so this could be one reason for the activity now.

Thank you so much for everyone's replies. Really appreciate it! I'm actually really happy in my job but I miss the academic side of things a lot. I'm going to look into universities near me and make some enquiries about assisting with marking etc and see what they say. Supervisor also advised just sending my cv and asking them to keep me on file but that sounds a bit 90s to me.

My old boss in HE encouraged me to get my post 16 PGCE . He said get it done now then you won’t need to worry about it later when it becomes compulsory.