Do I need to be working in a practice in order to teach?
We welcome interest from all GPs keen to teach our medical students. All our placements are practice-based. We would usually expect your practice to provide a room and patients, but it will depend on the teaching option that you sign up for. If you do not have a regular practice base, but are working regularly at a practice as a sessional GP, some of our teaching options may be suitable.
How can I become an approved teacher for GP placements?
To become an approved teacher for GP placements, we ask interested practitioners to complete an initial expression of interest form containing a few preliminary questions. If appropriate, we will then request more detailed information regarding your professional background, teaching experience and practice setting. Attendance at our teacher training course is a mandatory requirement prior to supervising students. Once approved, your details will be recorded in our primary care teacher database.
If you are interested in becoming an approved teacher, please complete this expression of interest form.
If you have any questions regarding the form or becoming an approved teacher, please get in contact with Ann-Kathrin Bartels.
How can my practice become approved for teaching students?
If your practice is new to teaching for Imperial College London, we may visit to assess the learning environment and discuss the teaching options and experience of the proposed tutors.
As a newly approved practice, how will my placement allocations work?
If you are starting teaching on placements with us as a new practice, you will initially be allocated to one year group or placement. Over time, this may expand to include additional year groups or placements. Please note that all allocations depend on availability, and we cannot guarantee specific allocations.
Where in London do you require teaching practices?
The bulk of our teaching is undertaken in North-West London, West London and South-West London. We also require training practices outside London for our final year students who spend 4 weeks on placements across the UK (year 6 GPSA).
How many students would I be required to teach?
Patients, Communities and Healthcare (Years 1 and 2) tutors teach groups of 4 or 8 students.
Medicine in the Community Apprenticeship (Year 3) is one pair of students.
General Practice and Primary Health Care (Year 5) is up to 2 students.
General Practice Student Assistantship (Year 6) is a single student.
How long do the student placements last?
These vary according to the type of placement and can range from 3 weeks for year 5 students, 8-9 weeks for year 3 students, or a longer academic year for PCH students in year 1. Please refer to our placement overview page for details.
Can I still teach if there is already a GP teacher at my practice?
Yes. We are happy for two or more GPs at the same practice to function separately and provide several student placements where this is practical. We would also be happy for two GPs to share the teaching responsibility as long as one took overall responsibility for the students' supervision, assessment and pastoral care. The majority of placements require one designated supervisor to be provided for the student/s and one named deputy supervisor to ensure cover for tutor annual leave/sickness.
How often do your TaCTIC teacher training courses run?
TaCTIC courses are scheduled to run approximately every 2 months and cater for new teachers and for our cohort of existing teachers wanting to refresh their skills.
How much does the course cost?
For existing Imperial College London teachers, the course is free.
For trainees (STs and Foundation), the course is free.
Do I get paid for teaching students?
Payment for teaching is made to practices and not to individual GPs.
How can I become an Imperial College London Teaching Fellow or Placement Lead with a formal departmental role?
Opportunities to become a Teaching Fellow or Placement Lead are advertised via the Imperial College London website and on jobs.ac.uk
Do you have any campus-based teaching opportunities?
We offer department-based teaching roles to experienced GPs who have been engaged in undergraduate education and are committed to ongoing professional development. To be considered, GPs must have substantial teaching experience, current and regular NHS GP clinical work (including routine sessions), and recent CPD in teaching—such as TACTIC or other advanced supervision courses. If CPD is not recent, we may suggest completing TACTIC as a refresher first. We also consider accreditation (Advance HE or AoME) and will review working days and availability to assess fit with our current teaching sessions. These roles have low turnover, and as such, we cannot guarantee that a position will become available in the near future.
All posts are currently filled, so we are not accepting expressions of interest at this time. If you are interested in teaching our students, please do consider becoming a community GP tutor.
How do I become an examiner for Imperial College London students?
To become an examiner for Imperial College London, you will need to first become one of our approved GP tutors and subsequently teach medical students within your practice for the year that you are examining. For example, to become a Year 3 OSCE examiner, you will need to have been teaching our Year 3 Medicine in the Community Apprenticeship course for at least one term. GP tutors already teaching this course are automatically invited to become examiners.
How will my data be stored?
We maintain a database of all GP teachers and practices who have taught for us in the past 7 years.
Who can I contact for more information?
Please contact Ann-Kathrin Bartels if you have further questions that are not covered here.
