Operating department practitioner undergraduate degree courses

What the undergraduate degree route means here

An undergraduate degree is the standard way in and the one most people take. You apply through UCAS, usually in the autumn of the year before you want to start, and you can apply straight from school or college or as a mature applicant with an Access to HE diploma. The degree carries the practice placements built into it, so you finish eligible to apply for registration without a separate qualifying step.

30 of the 59 approved operating department practitioner courses follow this route. The rest are degree apprenticeship (28) and pre-registration master’s (1) , and all of them lead to the same HCPC registration and the same starting job. Choose the route that matches where you are now — school leaver, graduate, or already working for an employer who might sponsor you — rather than the one that sounds most senior.

14 of these 30 courses carry a UCAS code, so you apply through UCAS; the remainder take applications direct. 14 publish a typical offer in a citable form, shown in the table below. Whatever the route, the programme has to include 2,300 hours of assessed practice placement, and that is where most of the travel and most of the unpaid time goes.