Microcredentialing—bite-sized learning modules—is emerging as a transformative approach to theological education, making it more accessible to under-resourced Christians seeking practical and flexible ways to engage in learning. By offering formal credentials in smaller, stackable units, microcredentialing provides an innovative alternative to traditional theological degrees, which often require significant time and financial commitment.
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Dr. Marvin Oxenham is the secretary-general of the European Council for Theological Education (ECTE) and a faculty member at London School of Theology. He is also the quality assurance director and both founder and director of ICETE Academy, which was first launched by ECTE in 2016 and then handed over to the International Council for Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE) in 2018 to serve as "an educational development platform providing certified professional training for theological educators wherever they are in the world." Based in Rome, Oxenham has worked for 25 years in church planting, evangelism and theological education.
In the first of two articles, Oxenham speaks with Christian Daily International about the benefits of microcredentialing for higher education institutions and students. The interview took place during ICETE’s 19th Global Consultation held from March 3 to 7, 2025, in Tirana, Albania.
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The idea of microcredentialing in theological education first emerged from Oxenham’s work at ICETE Academy, where he helped develop 150 short courses that have been used by 3,000 theological educators from 125 countries to date. ICETE Academy was created in response to a recognized need to provide educational training to theological educators.
Over the past years, microcredentialing has come to the forefront as an efficient way to reach untrained pastors, although Oxenham comments that defining the concept behind this “new player in the field of adult education” is still somewhat difficult.
“It is a development in some parts of the world, more prevalent than others in higher education. And it's a response to the need to provide more education to more people that is accessible, that's relevant, that's affordable,” he says.
Oxenham notes that mainstream appreciation of microcredentialing in the secular world is being echoed in the sphere of theological educators, leading them to formulate “the same ideas.”
“So, for example, the United Nations, one of their Sustainable Development Goals concerning education, is education for all. And the microcredentials at a global level are really feeding into that because to get a full degree in any discipline is not for all, it's for a few. It's for those who have time, those who have money, those who are the right age as well.”
Leaders within theological education are therefore “thinking along the same lines” that a traditional theological education, often involving one to three years of full-time study to earn a degree, is just not realistic for everyone or even necessary.
For Oxenham, a relevant point is that the pool of students wanting to study theology is changing.
“There's more and more bi-vocational leaders or there are leaders who want to top-up, they want to get specific training on specific topics. They don't need to get another degree,” says Oxenham.
“So what microcredentials do is offer a mechanism to deliver short-focused, learning experiences to a very broad platform of potential students,” Oxenham says, warming to his subject.
“Now, in a sense you say, well, short courses have been around forever, which is true. The difference with microcredentials is that although they are short learning experiences, they are actual credentials. So they are considered as formal higher education credentials.”
Oxenham compares microcredentials to Lego bricks to illustrate their similarities and differences with traditional learning formats.
“Imagine a typical degree and just break it down into many pieces of Lego, but each Lego piece is self-standing, it is a credential in itself, then you can stack them together, stack them back into a fuller qualification.
“But it's basically broken down the learning experience into much smaller units and that hugely increases accessibility.”
An additional advantage of using microcredentials in higher education is finding a balance between formal and non-formal methods of theological education.
“We're seeing that microcredentials are going to serve as a platform that will in some way also bring closer together the formal and the non-formal world of theological education because through microcredentials, the non-formal will be moved closer to the formal [since] non-formal providers want to move in the direction of microcredentials.”
At the same time, formal microcredentials need to move in the direction of the non-formal, “in their drive to be relevant.”
“And so one of the many outcomes we're hoping to see is collaboration between non-formal providers and formal theological schools designing and delivering microcredentials,” says Oxenham. “So I think there's a huge hope for that to really change the face of the future of theological education.”
Oxenham admits this collaboration and advancement of microcredentials by theological educators is “still so new, so fresh” that at this stage, “we’re looking for early adopters that are going to want to risk, to experiment.”
He adds there are “some providers that are starting to offer this,” but tells Christian Daily International, “Maybe if we interview again in five or ten years, I'll be able to tell you here's some good examples and use some data. At the moment we're standing on the verge.”
Oxenham points to research showing that some regions such as Africa and Asia are showing interest in the concept of microcredentials and Europe too, where ECTE has been formally approved as a quality assurance agency for the purposes of accreditation. He foresees a burgeoning interest in the Middle East and Latin America where “the phenomena is still less familiar to many.” A priority though, “in this first year,” has been enhancing the existence of microcredentials both formally and nonformally.
ECTE has been one of the first known accrediting agencies in Europe to incorporate microcredentials into theological education, but the process is still in its early stages. While programs have begun, schools are just now beginning to undergo their first reviews after implementing microcredentials.
Still, Oxenham firmly believes in the concept and the significant benefits. Asked why he thinks theological educational institutions should give microcredentials a try, he offers several reasons.
“I would say as a first reason, it's to expand the mission of what you're doing. Potential students who can benefit from high quality theological education and training with traditional full qualifications simply won't be reached.
“Online delivery, which is a great thing, has hugely increased accessibility, but you're still offering maybe an online degree, which is expensive and long.”
As an example, Oxenham talks about how microcredentials could benefit a Christian worker living in a rural area with a family and a part-time job. In such a scenario, earning a full degree could take ten years and come at a high financial cost. In contrast, microcredential studies provide a more accessible and affordable alternative.
Microcredentialing can also benefit higher education institutions struggling with student intake, enrollment numbers and finances because the traditional market with students doing a full-time degree in theology is “simply shrinking.”
“Society is changing, the church is changing, the idea of ministry is changing,” Oxenham says. “And so to move more toward lifelong learning paradigms can be a wise response to changing times.”
