Physiotherapy (Pre-Registration)
MSc
Start dates: September 2024 / September 2025
Full time: 24 months
Location: Headington (Marston Road site)
Department(s): School of Sport, Nutrition and Allied Health Professions
Overview
Clinical, communication, teamwork, and leadership skills are at the heart of our curriculum. Your days will be full of enquiry-based learning in lectures, seminars, practicals, simulations and placements. You might see your knowledge in action working with athletes at Oxford Quins Rugby Football Club. Or maybe you’ll treat children within the NHS and local community. Or how about working alongside PhD students on research projects?
You’ll learn real-world skills that prepare you for a range of scenarios. Our clinical skills suites and simulation resources will expose you to challenging environments working with stroke, dementia and intensive care patients.
Whether you’re interested in musculoskeletal conditions, cardiorespiratory, neurology, or another area of physiotherapy, you can follow your interests by choosing modules covering a range of clinical specialities.
Why Oxford Brookes University?
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Unbeatable partnerships
Benefit from our partnership with Oxford Quins RFC where you could manage sportspeople. Or support our local NHS Trust to rehabilitate patients within homes and communities.
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Immersed in industry
Put your learning into action early in your first year with hospital and community placements. Gain confidence handling different scenarios, from premature babies to dementia.
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Top specialist equipment
Learn in our specialist movement laboratory. Our clinical and simulation facilities create authentic experiences for learning.
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Diverse classrooms
Study alongside those seeking a career change and recent graduates from around the world, and learn from their experiences and ideas.
Course details
Study modules
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
Within the Centre, staff, students and alumni across the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences are engaged in a number of research projects.
Careers
The profession of physiotherapy is constantly developing and the opportunities are developing with it. Our MSc Physiotherapy (Pre-registration) graduates work in a range of public and private units across the world, in areas such as:
- neurology
- respiratory care
- orthopaedics
- musculoskeletal conditions
- care of the elderly
- paediatrics.
You could follow in their footsteps by making an impact within acute and community NHS Trusts, or within private and sports focused healthcare. Or how about aiming for a research position as a PhD student? Past graduates are working in roles like the Head of Medical at Oxford United Football Club, and the Head of Application Management for NHS Digital.
Entry requirements
Specific entry requirements
GCSE: Grade 4 (C) in English, Maths and Science. For English and Maths, Level 2 Functional Skills are accepted as alternatives to GCSEs.
Applicants should have a BSc honours degree at 2:1 or above (or equivalent) in a science-based subject in:
- Anatomy
- Biological sciences
- Biology
- Kinesiology
- Physiology
- Sport and Exercise Science
- Sports Therapy (depending on biology content)
Applicants must:
- produce one recent reference.
- have experience of paid or voluntary work within a physiotherapy context which enables the applicant to demonstrate an understanding of the depth and breadth of Physiotherapy and an understanding of the knowledge, skills and values required.
Applicants will also be assessed on their demonstration of the following qualities:
- communication and interpersonal skills
- working with others
- a caring and respectful attitude to others
- reliability, honesty and trustworthiness
- problem solving skills and the ability to use initiative.
Additionally:
- All applicants will be screened for fitness to practise.
Scroll down for work experience in the Covid-19 pandemic
Please also see the University's general entry requirements.
Screening
All applicants will be screened for fitness to practise and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check will be made.
Selection process
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.
VBR focuses on 'how' and 'why' an applicant makes choices in how they act and seeks to explore reasons for their behaviour. Further details about the VBR framework can be found here.
English language requirements
For applicants whose first language is not English, an Academic IELTS score of 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.5 in each component) is required.
Please also see the University's standard English language requirements.
Pathways courses for international and EU students
We offer a range of courses to help you meet the entry requirements for your postgraduate course and also familiarise you with university life in the UK.
Take a Pre-Master's course to develop your subject knowledge, study skills and academic language level in preparation for your master's course.
If you need to improve your English language, we offer pre-sessional English language courses to help you meet the English language requirements of your chosen master’s course.
English requirements for visas
If you need a student visa to enter the UK you will need to meet the UK Visas and Immigration minimum language requirements as well as the University's requirements. Find out more about English language requirements.
International applications
We are pleased to offer a number of places to international applicants. For more details, please contact us. International applicants will need to apply early to allow enough time for obtaining visas.
Terms and Conditions of Enrolment
When you accept our offer, you agree to the Terms and Conditions of Enrolment. You should therefore read those conditions before accepting the offer.
International qualifications and equivalences
How to apply
Application process
You should show at application and interview an understanding of a career in physiotherapy and the wider health care environment. Ways of developing your insight and NHS values could be:
- Involvement with a group offering care or support in your local community, face to face or virtually.
- Showing an interest around key health issues in the media and reflecting on what this means for physiotherapists. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy here is a good source of information.
Applications are dealt with on a first come, first served basis, so please act early to avoid disappointment.
Tuition fees
Questions about fees?
Contact Student Finance on:
Tuition fees
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.
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 Physiotherapy 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).
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 £2,000 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
- diagnostic tools such as stethoscope - approx £35
- 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.