Physiotherapy
BSc (Hons)
UCAS code: B160
Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026
Full time: 3 years
Location: Headington (Marston Road site)
Department(s): School of Sport, Nutrition and Allied Health Professions
Overview
Being a physiotherapist can be a highly rewarding and varied career. You could be treating people in hospital or at home, working across different teams in the community or in a specialist practice, helping everyone from athletes to office workers.
At Oxford Brookes, we see physiotherapy as a combination of the physical and psychological in promoting health and wellbeing. On our course, you’ll gain up to 1000 hours of practice-based learning in different clinical settings. This could be in an NHS hospital, a research lab, a community setting or even a sports club.
You will gain experience of various scenarios with service users and actors in a simulation environment. Clinical partners and service users are involved in the design and teaching of our programmes throughout the course.
With high employability rates normally over 90%, our course gives you excellent opportunities to find an opening in your chosen field when you graduate.
If you already have a relevant bachelor's degree but would like to pursue physiotherapy, we offer a pre-registration master's course.
Why Oxford Brookes University?
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Innovative placements
Gain practical experience with 6-week placements in clinical, research, leadership or education settings.
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Vibrant research hub
Benefit from being at the centre of a group of internationally recognised hospitals and research. See how discovery and innovation play a direct role in helping patients.
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State-of-the-art facilities
Enhance your learning with our virtual simulation equipment. You can practise your skills and develop your competence in a realistic but safe learning environment.
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Top 10 in the UK
Physiotherapy is ranked 5th in the Guardian Physiotherapy subject league ranking 2025.
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High employability rates
Benefit from being fully prepared to step straight into a range of healthcare environments and choose your specialism.
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Free language courses
Free language courses are available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.
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Study abroad
You may be able to go on a European or international study exchange while you are at Brookes. Most exchanges take place in the second year. Although we will help as much as we can with your plans, ultimately you are responsible for organising and funding this study abroad.
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Accreditation(s)
Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)
Course details
Study modules
Teaching for this course takes place
Face to Face and you can expect around 9 hours of contact time per week. In addition to this, you should also anticipate a workload of 1,200 hours per year. Teaching usually takes place Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 6.00pm.
Contact hours involve activities such as lectures, seminars, practicals, assessments, and academic advising sessions. These hours differ by year of study and typically increase significantly during placements or other types of work-based learning.
Careers
Our graduates go on to many different branches of physiotherapy. You could pursue a career in:
- neurology
- respiratory care
- orthopaedics
- musculoskeletal conditions
- care of the elderly
- paediatrics.
Or you may decide to take up opportunities in sport, industry or private practice.
Many physiotherapists move into more specialist areas of practice such as research, teaching, health promotion or management. Some will take up consultant posts within the NHS, while others may become sports specialists or ergonomic advisers in industry.
As our course is professionally accredited, once you’ve completed your studies, you’ll be eligible to apply for registration with the regulatory body, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and to become a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP). Please note that HCPC and CSP approval of this course is subject to regular reviews and can be withdrawn.
Entry requirements
Wherever possible we make our conditional offers using the UCAS Tariff. The combination of A-level grades listed here would be just one way of achieving the UCAS Tariff points for this course.
Standard offer
UCAS Tariff Points: 128
A Level: ABB
IB Points: 32
BTEC: DDM
Contextual offer
UCAS Tariff Points: 104
A Level: BCC
IB Points: 29
BTEC: DMM
Specific entry requirements
A Level: Including 40 UCAS Tariff points (or 32 UCAS Tariff points with a contextual offer) from one A Level or a comparable Level 3 qualification in a biological science subject (e.g. Biology, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Education, Psychology).
GCSE: Grade 4 (C) in English, Maths and Science. For English and Maths, Level 2 Functional Skills are accepted as alternatives to GCSEs.
Graduates: Honours degree 55% or above. Where this does not include Biological Sciences, applicants will also require A-Level Biology/Human Biology at grade B or 75% in OU Human Biology (SK299).
Applicants are expected to show evidence of recent academic study over the last 2 years (5 years for degree applicants)
Work experience
At the time of application you will be expected to demonstrate some work or observational experience in physiotherapy. You should include a reflection of this in your personal statement on your UCAS form.
The reflective statement should demonstrate your commitment to Physiotherapy and show that you have an understanding of the depth and breadth of the profession. See Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.
Caring and Helping Others
Applicants should be able to demonstrate on their UCAS form a sustained period of experience (paid or voluntary) of caring and helping others in a health or social care environment.
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.
Applicants will be assessed on their academic ability, work experience, insight into caring and helping others and their ability to demonstrate 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.
Applicants will be shortlisted for interview based on the strength of their UCAS application.
English language requirements
An IELTS score of 6.5 (with a minimum of 6.5 in all components) is required where English is not the main language. Equivalent English Language qualifications may be considered.
Please also see the University's standard English language requirements.
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.
Credit transfer
Many of our courses consider applications for entry part-way through the course for students who have credit from previous learning or relevant professional experience.
Find out more about transferring to Brookes. If you'd like to talk through your options, please contact our Admissions team.
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:
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Involvement with a group offering care or support in your local community, face to face or virtually.
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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.
Tuition fees
Questions about fees?
Contact Student Finance on:
Tuition fees
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.
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 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.
Placement costs
There are costs that need to be paid for by students in travelling to and from practice placement and/or potential accommodation costs (a minority of students require additional accommodation for placement(s) during the course). Currently these can be as much as £1,000 per placement for accommodation and/or travel but will depend on location and type of placement. Home students may be able to claim reimbursement of these additional placement costs. Currently, the average travel cost per placement is £300 and for placements that require accommodation the average cost per placement is £600. There are 5 placements during the course (but more may be required if students are obliged to re-take with potential resulting additional costs).
Other costs
Books and electronic resources - approx £150
Diagnostic tools such as stethoscope - approx £35
Use of anatomy resources - £10
Shoes for practice to be worn with uniform - approx £35
Suitable clothing for the Labs - approx £30.
Further information on additional costs for healthcare courses can be found here.
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.