BSc (Hons) in Physiotherapy

Program Overview

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Physiotherapy

BSc (Hons)

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?

• Innovative placements: Gain practical experience with 6-week placements in clinical, research, leadership or education settings.
• 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.
• 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.
• Top 10 in the UK: Physiotherapy is ranked 5th in the Guardian Physiotherapy subject league ranking 2025.
• High employability rates: Benefit from being fully prepared to step straight into a range of healthcare environments and choose your specialism.
• Learn a language: Our university-wide language programme is available to full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students on many of our courses, and can be taken as a credit on some courses.
• 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.
• Accreditation(s): Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)

Course details

Course structure

Throughout the course, you’ll explore the core concepts of physiotherapy practice such as clinical reasoning, integrated community working and managing long-term conditions.

In Year 1, you’ll follow a set of compulsory modules on musculoskeletal, cardio-respiratory and neurological systems. But we encourage you to go beyond the traditional boundaries and use an enquiry-based approach.

You’ll also consider the values and professionalism of the role, so that you treat any patient as an individual. While the skills for health informatics module will show you the best ways to collate and appraise digital information.

Over Years 2 and 3, you’ll complete 5 placements in different clinical settings from hospitals to community-based environments. You'll undertake a leadership module and choose mini modules studying specialised content for example in psychological interventions, women's health or sports and trauma physiotherapy. Plus, you’ll choose a dissertation topic based around your own interests, which the earlier research methods module will prepare you for.

Learning and teaching

Your course modules are all compulsory and credit bearing. We use an enquiry-based approach. This means you will link knowledge from different fields in a clinical scenario and develop your independent learning.

Our modules involve:

• lectures
• seminars
• peer-group presentations
• online learning
• clinical simulation.

You will have your own academic adviser and link lecturer while on placement. They will help you with your academic, professional and clinical development.

Assessment

Assessment methods include:

• examinations
• coursework
• assessment of clinical practice
• practical viva voces.

Assignments may include:

• essays
• critical reviews of practice
• individual and group presentations.

Our formative assessments and feedback help prepare you for your final assessments. You will develop professional skills through key self-assessment and reflection accounts.

Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place Face to Face and you can expect around 14 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.

Year 1

• Compulsory modules
  • Skills for Digital Health
  • Cardio Respiratory Physiotherapy
  • Musculoskeletal Health and Physiotherapy
  • Neurological Movement Control and Physiotherapy
  • Developing Values Based Professionalism

Year 2

• Compulsory modules
  • Collaborative Practices in Health Care
  • Physiotherapy Management of Long Term Conditions
  • Health, Wellbeing and Exercise
  • Research Methods in Healthcare
  • Integrated Physiotherapy Practice
  • Practice Placements

Year 3

• Compulsory modules
  • Dissertation in Physiotherapy
  • Specialist Physiotherapy Practice
  • Leadership in Health and Social Care
  • Practice Placements

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

• 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).

Tuition fees

• 2025 / 26
  • Home (UK) full time: £9,535
  • International full time: £18,950
• 2026 / 27
  • Home (UK) full time: £9,535*
  • International full time: £19,700

*Tuition fee level for . Tuition fees for home undergraduate students in will be confirmed by the Government later in 2025 and will be updated on our website as soon as the information becomes available.

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 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.

Additional costs

• 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.