BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy

Teaching is based on a combination of theory and practice, with academic learning taking place at the University and professional practice in a variety of placement settings in Kent and other sites in the south east of England.

In University, you'll be taught using a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials and practical sessions including clinical simulation. You will need to prepare in advance for teaching sessions as we commonly use a ‘flipped classroom’ approach.

Physiotherapy, like many healthcare professions, is a highly practical and skills-based profession. Therefore, you will be expected, where possible, to partake in practical sessions both to develop your own safe and effective handling and technical skills, and to enable others to develop theirs. This will often involve, following an informed consent process, observing, palpating and moving regional anatomical structures on each other in simulated assessments and interventions.

During seminars, you'll be discussing and developing your understanding of topics covered in lectures and reflections in practice. In addition, you will meet with your academic personal tutor formally once a semester; this is an opportunity for you to discuss your academic, professional or personal progress.

All courses are informed by the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy 2015-2022.

You'll be expected to undertake independent learning to support your academic modules and practice experience. This can include reading journal articles, textbooks and some specific works, undertaking online searches or spending time researching in the library, working on group or individual projects and preparing for module assignments/examinations, workshops and seminars.

In Year 3, you will undertake independent research that is aligned to your particular areas of interest. You'll be supervised by a member of the teaching team, who you will meet regularly.

Throughout the course, you'll gain significant experience in practice placements where you'll be supervised and assessed on your competency to practice. The degree of supervision will depend on your stage of learning and will allow you time to advance your skills at your own pace, while maintaining the safety of patients.

Placements are varied to ensure you gain a wide range of experience. During placements you are required to work the shift patterns, for example, weekends, bank holidays and night duty, of your practice area. This ensures that you experience the full range of activity in your individual placement. While on placement, you must conform to the rules of appearance and conduct as set out by your placement provider/organisation.

You will undertake an elective placement, organised by you with support from the teaching team. This will give you the opportunity to arrange an experience closely matched to your specific areas of interest where you can enhance your practice learning.

The timetable will be subject to variations, however, as a guide, this is a full-time course and campus-based learning will occur on 3 to 4 days a week. Practice placements will average 37.5 hour per week and the hours will be in line with the requirements of the provider responsible for your placement (ie shift working, long days, weekend working).

Your overall workload will typically consist of 50 hours of directed study and 150 hours of independent study for each module.

The practice modules will meet professional body requirement of a minimum of 1000 clinical hours. You will need to allow time to reflect on each day’s learning in practice and review the relevant evidence base for practice: this will average two hours per practice day.

You will be taught by academics with experience in delivering research-informed evidence-based content.

The majority of the teaching team are HCPC registered practitioners.