Universities for Physio / sports therapy?

[PoohBears#1fan]

DS for years has had an aspiration to be an underwater mine clearance diver in the Navy - whilst I'm incredibly proud of this, I'm also naturally terrified also.

Now that uni application times are approaching he's showing an interest in sports / physio therapy, which the terrified mother in me is of course, jumping on! Up until now he's had no interest in uni and DD's course was completely unrelated so I've no idea which ones are the good ones to look at, he has absolutely no idea about what (geographical) area he'd like to look at.

Can anyone recommend where to look, we've looked on UCAS at the choices but, of course, they're overwhelming!

His 2 main interests are sports and diving so I think sports therapy would probably make more sense for him than general physiotherapy.

Can anyone offer any advice please or recommend which unis to look at first?

Thank you

[mrsdjh]

A friends son is due to start at York St John, he also looked at Hull (great facilities), Sheffield and Loughborough.

It may be less overwhelming to start by deciding how far away he is happy to be and check the courses within that radius, that’s what we did for my daughter.

[400ixl]

Friends son went to Sheffield to do this as it was one of the most renowned for the course. Probably helped by the fact it is also a Medical teaching university as well.

[123]

OH is a physio, and the one thing I can say is that the course is massively competitive to get on to. There are a lot less places that offer Physio than Medicine and as such it's pretty much as difficult to get a place for Physio as it is a Medic degree.

You have to really want to do the course, as the grades you need to get onto it and the effort you need to get through the course certainly aren't reflected in the pay scale at the other end.

Put it this way, with the grades and effort my OH got they could have started a grad job with one of the big 4 on £35k a year rather than a first year physio job on £15K (a few years ago now).

They wouldn't change their decision to go to into Physio though.

In terms of places to go (to add to those already mentioned) Keele has a decent reputation and Scotland has some amazing Physio courses (but of course then you have to come to terms with the fact that everyone else in the room is getting taught for free but you as an English student are payign £9,250 each year for the same tuition)

[123]

Originally Posted by 400ixl

Friends son went to Sheffield to do this as it was one of the most renowned for the course. Probably helped by the fact it is also a Medical teaching university as well.

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I can only think of one University (Glasgow Caledonian) that offers Physio but isn't also a Medical School.

In the case of GC that is because the private Physio college in Glasgow was "acquired" by Caledonian when it became a University to diversify it's offerings

[cheekytink]

I’m a physio and happy to answer any questions your DS may have.
The first place I would look is the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy website- they have some helpful content for aspiring physios that could help him decide.

[smithlane]

My daughter was set on doing Physio next year at Uni. She had the predicted grades and her work experience all lined up, then Covid hit! Work experience and Open Days all cancelled and during lockdown she has had a slight change of heart.

As another poster said, it’s a crazily competitive course to get on to and with her mental health not in the best place she has decided to go down a different route. It also didn’t help that she doesn’t want to leave home so needed to find Unis within commuting distance, which to be fair we’re very fortunate to live in Greater London so it wasn’t too bad.
Some of the Unis also required 2 subjects of science done at A Level and as she is only doing a single BTEC in Applied Science as well as Sports and Dance, only some would accept this therefore narrowing her choices even further. Also some were still requiring work experience on their personal statement which is rather difficult at the moment...

The Unis she had short listed were
St Mary’s
London Southbank
Hertfordshire
St George’s
Winchester

After many, many conversations she has decided on Sports and Exercise Science so it doesn’t narrow her choices just yet. If after the 3 years she is still interested in being a Physio then she can use that degree to get on a Pre Reg masters degree which is 2 years. A longer way around but I believe the best course of action for her.

Good luck to your DS, it’s all rather stressful this Uni malarkey!

[mitch84]

Loughborough I believe Is excellent for such things.
I went to Sheffield, and whilst I don’t know about that course, I had a tremendous amount of fun!

[dippiedawnie]

We are in a similar position. DS is looking at Sport science or physio. He is leaning towards doing sport 1st as is only doing 1 science and although predicted to get all A* it is very competitive for physio so less likely to be accepted. He has been looking and has decided on Loughborough, Durham and York I think for Sport and was looking at Sunderland and Northumbria for Physio. I'm an OT and trained alongside the physio course at Northumbria and loved it.
We live in Durham and my DS has been volunteering every holiday on the junior sports summer camps the Uni runs so is lucky enough to have some references from some of the staff there hence him choosing there. The sports facilities at Maiden castle are great but I don't think they have any diving- plenty of rowing- but not diving 😂

[PoohBears#1fan]

Thank you everyone, lots for him to think about & research