Occupational therapist courses in England

Studying to become a occupational therapist in England

England has by far the largest share of pre-registration provision in the UK, and courses here are funded through the standard Student Finance England package — a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan — with the NHS Learning Support Fund available on top for eligible health students. That fund is a grant rather than a loan, and it includes help with the travel and childcare costs that placements generate. Placements are with NHS trusts, and in most parts of England you will rotate through more than one.

Registration is UK-wide. Qualifying from an approved course in England lets you work as a occupational therapist anywhere in the United Kingdom, and employers in the other nations do not treat the award differently. What the nation changes is the money and the placement geography while you study — the student finance body you deal with, the bursary or grant you can claim, and the health service you spend your placements in. The schemes that applies here are NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF), Undergraduate-rate student finance for pre-registration postgraduate (MSc/PGDip) courses, Postgraduate Master's Loan (England) and Degree apprenticeship funding (England).

112 of the 129 approved occupational therapist courses in the UK are in England; the rest are in Scotland (10), Wales (6) and Northern Ireland (1). It is worth looking across the border before you decide — moving nation can change your fee position substantially in either direction, and the course itself qualifies you the same way wherever you take it. Within England the courses split across pre-registration master’s (41), undergraduate degree (40), degree apprenticeship (29) and integrated master’s (2). 12 carry a UCAS code; the rest take direct applications.

Provision within England is spread across South East (18), West Midlands (17), London (15), North West (13), South West (11), Yorkshire and The Humber (11), East of England (9), North East (9) and East Midlands (8). That spread matters once you are on placement: a course in a region with several trusts or health boards within commuting distance usually means shorter placement travel and a wider range of clinical settings than one drawing on a single provider.