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Occupational Therapy (Pre-Registration)

MSc

Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026

Full time: 24 months

Location: Headington (Marston Road site)

School(s): School of Sport, Nutrition and Allied Health Professions

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Overview

On our Occupational Therapy course, you’ll build the skills and knowledge to work with people of all ages from all walks of life. You will help individuals with a variety of physical, mental, and social needs improve their mobility in order to overcome the challenges they face on a daily basis.

You’ll take part in supervised practice placements during both years of study. These will present you with opportunities to take the skills you’ve learned on the course and apply them in professional settings. Placements in a professional setting, in or outside of the Oxford area, give you the chance to learn and practice on location.

This pre-registration Masters degree is approved by the Health and Care Professions Council and accredited by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists. Successful completion allows you to register as an occupational therapist in the UK. So you’ll be learning the skills, and gaining the knowledge for a rewarding career.

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Students practicing using a hoist lift

Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Part of a team

    Join a close-knit community of occupational therapists, with easy access to help and advice.

  • Global knowledge

    You’ll meet people from all over the world on this course, and learn from their perspectives and experiences.

  • Enhance your learning

    Make yourself more employable and gain new friends by joining the Oxford Brookes Occupational Therapy Society.

  • Be practical

    Improve your hands-on experience by taking part in simulations of real situations from the safety of the classroom.

  • Research opportunities

    Discover and get involved with observational research projects, and sharpen your own research skills.

  • Accreditation(s)

    HCPC approved and RCOT/WFOT accredited

    • Royal College of Occupational Therapists
    • Health and Care Professions Council

Course details

Course structure

In Year 1, you'll build the knowledge that is essential to developing your professional identity. You’ll also start to hone your skills as an occupational therapist. You’ll engage with and gain a deep understanding of anatomy and patho-physiology. Through learning activities aimed at improving your critical thinking and academic development, you’ll be prepared for your first clinical practice placement. You'll also start planning your self-directed research dissertation project.

You’ll start your second year with another clinical placement so you can further your professional competencies. You’ll then develop your population-specific learning. And study working with children and those with long-term conditions. You’ll acquire the skills and understanding to explore the occupational therapy role, in relation to more complex health and social care issues. A self-directed research project and dissertation give you the opportunity to improve your employability skills. In addition, you'll have the chance to select a range of intensive practice-specific workshops.

Students using a can opening aid

Learning and teaching

You will have online and experience-based learning opportunities.

You will also learn through:

  • lectures
  • seminars
  • group work
  • self-directed study
  • Simulation based learning

You will have access to an extensive range of learning resources through our online learning platform.

On campus, you will share some of your learning with physiotherapy students. This is essential to develop your teamwork skills and your understanding of other roles you will encounter in practice.

You will be taught both alongside and separately to the BSc(Hons) Occupational Therapy programme.

Assessment

Throughout the degree, you will experience a range of assessments, including:

  • skill-based assessments
  • presentations
  • coursework
  • In-class test
  • work placement assessment. Each of your three practice placements are assessed. You must pass each placement but they do not count towards your final degree award.

Throughout the programme you have opportunities to practice assessment tasks and to receive feedback before your final submission. This feedback helps you to make modifications to your coursework before the final hand-in.

Study modules

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

  • Applied Research Methods

    In this module you will use the fundamental conceptual models of occupational therapy practice, alongside the therapeutic use of self, in order to develop the procedural and interactive reasoning skills needed to apply the occupational paradigm. You will examine human performance and function within the context of Occupational Therapy and apply your understanding of anatomy and physiology to medical conditions that have an impact on the skills and abilities of clients. You will use their investigation skills to examine the evidence base for occupational therapy and prepare your ideas for an occupational therapy focused dissertation.

Optional modules

Advancing occupational therapy practice

In this module you will focus on emerging or specialist areas of occupational therapy practice, both at an individual and population levels.

 

Enabling Occupational Participation 1

In this module you will build on and apply your occupational therapy knowledge to enabling occupational participation in older people.

 

Enabling Occupational Participation 2

In this module you will focus on occupational therapy in the context of people with long term physical or mental health conditions, as well as learning disabilities.

 

Enabling Occupational Participation 3

In this module you will focus on occupational therapy in the context of children, young people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or mental health conditions. 

 

Evidence Base for Occupational Therapy

In this module, you will engage critically with the evidence base supporting occupational therapy and learn to be a critical consumer of research evidence in preparation for practice placement and the dissertation project.

Leadership in Health and Social Care

In this module, you will shift your focus to preparing for professional practice by considering inter-professional practice and leadership.

 

Occupational Therapy Dissertation

This module is a year long dissertation project where you will develop your own project in either research, service evaluation or service improvement. This may be literature based or involve primary or secondary data analysis.

Perspectives on Occupation, Health and Wellbeing

In this module you will be supported to critically evaluate concepts and theory underpinning occupational therapy.

 

Professional Development 2b

Professional Development 3

Partnerships 3

Structure and Function of the Human Body

In this module you will be enabled to synthesise knowledge of structure (Anatomy) and function (Physiology) of the human body as it relates to functioning, health and disability across the lifespan. 

 

Therapeutic Processes

In this module you will synthesise knowledge necessary to engage people therapeutically as well as understand and analyse occupational performance and engagement. 

 

Work placement

Compulsory modules

  • Practice Placements

    In semester 2 you will continue with your academic modules but start a 6 week practice placement in springtime. You'll then start a 10 week placement in the following autumn and the final placement (12 weeks long) usually occurs in the summer of Year 2.

    Practice placements are an integral part of your course. For each placement you will be supervised in a selected health or social care workplace setting. You will become increasingly involved in the treatment of clients of different ages and with a diversity of needs. 

    We offer a range of support mechanisms, both within the University and in the placement area, to support you through your programme of study. While on placement, you will be supported by a named member of staff known as a practice educator. We have a dedicated Practice Education Unit that provides administrative and academic support for placement learning/practice education for all pre-qualifying courses.

     

Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Research

The Centre for Movement, Occupational and Rehabilitation Sciences (MOReS) brings together research, education and care. It is underpinned by a strong, well-published research group, the movement science group. This supports the clinical expertise, rehabilitation, knowledge and care of adults and children with neurological conditions.

Within the Centre, staff, students and alumni across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences are engaged in a number of research projects, including:

  • driving rehabilitation
  • fatigue management dual task control in Stroke
  • efficacy of intensive motor learning programmes
  • arts in health research
  • virtual Reality (VR) technologies
  • early identification of motor and sensory processing impairments in children
  • sensory processing disorders and impact on function and behaviour in children with autism
  • measurement and monitoring of rehabilitation participation - Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
  • therapy for handwriting in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD).
Researcher working on laptop

Careers

You can find our graduates working across various sectors. These include social work, charity, and policy development. There are also many opportunities for occupational therapists to work, in settings such as schools, community centres, prisons and industrial organisations.

After getting involved with our research opportunities, you’ll be able to demonstrate research and critical thinking skills at a deeper level. This will help you stand out and be of value to many organisations.

Entry requirements

International qualifications and equivalences

How to apply

Application process

International applicants will need to apply early to allow enough time for obtaining visas.

If you are offered a place you may be asked to pay a deposit of £3,000 to secure a place on the course.

Applications are dealt with on a first come, first served basis, so please act early to avoid disappointment.

All Oxford Brookes University Health and Social Care Programmes conduct Value Based Recruitment (VBR).

We recognise that values and attitudes have the greatest impact on the quality of people’s care and their experiences.

VBR is a way of helping our Programme recruitment teams to assess the values, motives and attitudes of those who wish to work with people in health and social care settings. When we refer to values we mean, for example, the values included in the NHS constitution.


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Tuition fees

Please see the fees note
Home (UK) full time
£9,250
International full time
£18,500
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
International full time
£18,950

Tuition fees

2024 / 25
Home (UK) full time
£9,250
International full time
£18,500
2025 / 26
Home (UK) full time
£9,535
International full time
£18,950
Fees quoted are for the first year only. If you are studying a course that lasts longer than one year, your fees will increase each year.

Please note, tuition fees for Home students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Oxford Brookes University intends to maintain its fees for new and returning Home students at the maximum permitted level.

For further information please see our 2025-26 tuition fees FAQs.

Tuition fees for International students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students. 

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support.

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Financial support and scholarships

All eligible Occupational Therapy students on courses from September 2020 (new and continuing) will receive a payment of at least £5,000 a year which they will not need to pay back. For more information please visit NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF).

For general sources of financial support, see our Fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

In addition to the tuition fees, there are costs that need to be paid for by students in travelling to and from practice placement and potential accommodation costs.

These could be as much as £3,000 per placement depending on the location and type of placement. However currently the average accommodation cost per month is £550 and average travel cost is £250 per month. Students will spend up to 30 weeks on placement.

Other costs

  • books and electronic resources - approx £100
  • deposit for anatomy resources - £10
  • shoes for practice to be worn with uniform - approx £50
  • suitable clothing for the Labs - approx £30.

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.