Graduate School

The Graduate Certificate in College and University teaching is an 18-credit transcript visible credential. To learn more about the core courses and the Graduate School’s Holistic Graduate Education Initiative, visit the GCCUT website.

The Graduate Certificate in College and University Teaching (GCCUT) is Oregon State University's response to the growing need for educators to provide future university-level educators with creative, effective, and data-driven classroom practice.

GCCUT was created with the understanding that a large number of graduate students move into academia after receiving their degree. These graduates will be more than researchers they will be teachers, advisors, guides for the undergraduates making their way from high school seniors to capable, educated adults. There is a clear need for graduate students to have the opportunity to hone their skills as future teachers and communicators, in addition to being able researchers.

For graduates students planning a career in academia, there is sometimes a gap between mastery of their subject material, which their graduate degree is meant to represent, and their ability to successfully present that technical subject material to an audience that is just beginning to learn the nuances of the field.

Creating a syllabus, determining specific learning outcomes, and planning how to assess progress toward these outcomes requires a knowledge of theory and practice and a keen understanding of learners who may be just beginning to learn the nuances of the discipline. GCCUT's workshops and courses focus on preparing students to successfully handle these challenges.

GCCUT brings together students from many different graduate programs across the university and creates an environment that encourages students to question their own presuppositions about teaching. Why subjects are often taught in such wildly different ways raises some important questions why can't poetry be used to understand chemistry why shouldn't the scientific method help students learn how to be better writers?

Providing an environment for graduate students to take risks and try out new ideas is necessary for them to respond creatively to the many different roles they'll play throughout their lifetime. GCCUT is just one more part of the OSU Graduate School’s Holistic Graduate Education Initiative that offers educational and training opportunities to provide vital professional skills to our graduate students.