Program Overview

Master of Occupational Therapy Program

The Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) program is a two-year professional master’s degree program, and the only occupational therapy degree program in British Columbia. Fully accredited by the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT), our graduates are eligible to write the national licensing certification exam upon graduation.

Program Overview

The Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) program prepares graduates to be exceptional self-directed, life-long learners who consciously use theory, evidence, and critical thinking skills to maintain, evaluate, and improve their practice of occupational therapy. Our program is anchored in evidence-based and contemporary theories, principles, and beliefs around occupation, health, occupational therapy, social justice, and the education of adult learners.

Curriculum & Courses

Your program will consist of 15 courses (65 credits), which are organized into six terms of study. A course may be one, two, or three terms in duration. In alignment with the integrated professional and educational conceptual framework, all courses are designed to address the Profile of Practice of Occupational Therapists in Canada (CAOT, 2012) and the Essential Competencies for Occupational Therapists in Canada, 3rd edition (ACOTRO, 2011).

• Theory
• Health, illness and occupation
• Skills for practice
• Evidence for practice
• Professional practice
• Fieldwork

Program Features

• Vibrant, inclusive community with supportive professors, tutors and instructors.
• Active, long-term links with the practicing clinical community, with excellent opportunities for fieldwork placements.
• High overall faculty to student ratio (approximately 1:4), with lectures (approximately 1:56), labs (approximately 1:28 or 1:14) and case-based tutorials (approximately 1:8).
• Lectures, seminars, live and web-based discussions, along with collaborative and case-based tutorials.
• Interprofessional and integrated curricula are delivered throughout the two-year program.
• Broad range of selected topics are shared with other disciplines, including physical therapy, speech language pathology, nursing, social work, and others health professions at UBC.
• Case-based learning is fundamental to our approach, and provides an exemplary foundation for the complexities of professional practice.
• Emphasis on experiential learning through hands-on skills sessions and the majority of courses include the involvement of clinical faculty and people with lived experience.
• A total of 30 weeks of fieldwork in five different settings are incorporated into the program, encouraging confidence and allowing you to pursue your own interests and specialisms.

Professional & Educational Framework

The Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) professional and educational conceptual framework describes the underpinnings of our curriculum and guides decisions about pre-requisite courses, course content and design, instructional methods, assessment of student learning, and the development of occupational therapy practice competencies.

Professional Element

Our beliefs about occupation, health, occupational therapy, and social justice are informed by contemporary and established scholarship in occupational science and occupational therapy.

• Occupation is complex, transformative, and situated in context.
• Health is multifaceted. Community is essential to health and occupation is a determinant of health.
• Occupational therapy’s domain of concern is occupation (performance, participation, and engagement); its theory and practice are holistic and informed by research.
• Social justice calls on us to ensure that engagement in occupation respects human rights and dignity.

Educational Element

• Transformative learning theory informs how our instructors facilitate students’ ability to connect new knowledge to past learning and experience.
• Critical pedagogy challenges our instructors to make space for students to question the status quo and dominant ideologies.
• Cognitive load theory describes the need for a goodness-of-fit between students’ capacity to learn, the content to be learned, and the methods used to facilitate learning.
• Constructivism explains how knowledge is formed, both through subjective and socially constructed understandings.
• Universal design for learning (UDL) principles support inclusion, diversity, and equity for students in our MOT program.

Tuition & Fees

All applicants are required to pay an online application fee to the UBC Faculty of Graduate and Post-doctoral Studies when submitting an online application to the Master of Occupational Therapy program.

Domestic applicants

• Application Fees
  • Application Fee: $114.00
  • Supplemental Application Fee: $127.25
  • Total Application Cost: $241.25
• Tuition
  • $16,024.74 total or $2,670.79 in six installments over 2 years
• MOT program fees
  • MOT Program Fees (estimated), payable at the start of each academic year
    • Year 1: $726.00
    • Year 2: $468.00
• Other course costs
  • Estimated Fieldwork Costs: Costs for travel, accommodation and daily living vary during placements that occur outside of your home campus location (est. budget $2000 monthly).
  • Estimated Books & Supplies: $1,000 annually
• Other living costs
  • AMS/GSS Extended Health Care Insurance Plan (all students): $264.63 annually
  • Estimated UBC Student Fees: $899.00 annually
  • Estimated Cost of Living: Starting at $16,453.00 annually

International applicants

• Application Fees
  • Application Fee: $168.25
  • Supplemental Application Fee: $127.25
  • Total Application Cost: $295.50
• Tuition
  • $101,702.70 total or $16,950.45 in six installments over of 2 years
• MOT program fees
  • MOT Program Fees (estimated), payable at the start of each academic year
    • Year 1: $726.00
    • Year 2: $468.00
• Other course costs
  • Estimated Fieldwork Costs: Costs for all travel, accommodation and daily living vary during mandatory Out of Town placements.
  • Estimated Books & Supplies: $1,000 annually
• Other living costs
  • iMED (for international students): $225.00 payable at the beginning of first year
  • AMS/GSS Extended Health Care Insurance Plan (all students): $264.63 annually
  • Estimated UBC Student Fees: $899.00 annually
  • Estimated Cost of Living: Starting at $16,453.00 annually (Vancouver)

Volunteering & Work Experience

All applicants to the Master of Occupational Therapy program are required to complete a minimum of 70 hours of volunteer or paid work experience that involves direct, meaningful and in-person interaction with persons with physical, cognitive, and/or emotional disabilities.

Admission Requirements

Check your eligibility and confirm your suitability for the program.

• The Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) program has specific admission requirements.
• Check the program website for the most up-to-date information on admission requirements.

Career Profiles

• Occupational Therapist
• Clinical Associate Professor

Our Vision, Mission and Values

Read about the values that support our research and our approach as a department.