Operating department practitioner courses in the UK

How to read this list

Every course below leads to eligibility for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), which is what you need before you can work — and use the protected title "Operating department practitioner" — as a operating department practitioner in the UK. Approval is the floor, not a ranking: an approved course has been assessed against the regulator's standards, so any of these will qualify you. What differs is the route, the length, where you will be sent on placement and what the university asks for at entry.

These 59 courses split across undergraduate degree (30), degree apprenticeship (28) and pre-registration master’s (1) . If you are applying from school or college, the undergraduate route is the one designed for you. If you already hold a degree, a pre-registration master's covers the same standards in less time, and you will usually apply direct to the university rather than through UCAS. A degree apprenticeship is a job first: you need an employer to take you on, and you study alongside working rather than instead of it. Whichever route you take, the programme has to build in 2,300 hours of practice placement, so the geography of a course is a real part of the decision — you will spend a substantial share of the degree away from campus in clinical settings.

Provision spans England (55), Wales (3) and Scotland (1). Registration is UK-wide, so where you study does not limit where you can work afterwards — but fees, the student finance body and the bursary or learning support you can claim are all set nation by nation, and some schemes attach a commitment to work in that nation after you qualify. Read the funding pages before you rule a nation in or out on cost.

21 of these 59 courses publish a typical offer in a form this site can cite, and quoted UCAS tariffs run from 96 to 112 points. 14 carry a UCAS code and are applied for through UCAS; the rest take direct applications. Treat every requirement here as a starting point and confirm it on the university's own page — offers move year to year, and most providers also ask for an occupational health check, an enhanced DBS or equivalent disclosure, and often relevant work experience or a period of observation.