Orthoptics BSc (Hons)

Course facts

Award

BSc (Hons)

Route

Undergraduate degree

Length

4 years

Study modes

full-time

UCAS code

B520

Starts

September

Campus

Glasgow

Where

Scotland, Scotland

Regulator

HCPC — approved

Everything above is taken from the published record for this programme. Rows that are absent are absent from the source data, not omitted for brevity.

Entry requirements

A levels

BCC or equivalent including A Level in two sciences

UCAS tariff

102 points

Notes

GCU's standard offer for 2027/28 entry is 102 UCAS tariff points, equivalent to Scottish Highers BBBC including two sciences; a widening-access minimum offer of 90 points (Highers BCCC) also applies.

This is the typical offer, which is the level the university publishes as its normal requirement — not a guaranteed threshold and not a maximum. Offers move with demand, and a strong application with relevant care experience is treated differently from a bare set of grades. Almost every provider also requires an enhanced criminal-records check and occupational health clearance before you can go on placement, and many interview.

Outcomes

Where the national surveys publish figures for this course, they appear here. Small cohorts are routinely suppressed in the official releases, which is why a tile can read "not published" for a course that is running perfectly well.

Outcome figures are worth less on this kind of course than on most. Pre-registration programmes feed a regulated profession with a national pay scale, so a graduate from any approved course starts on the same band as a graduate from any other. Earnings differences between providers mostly reflect where graduates end up living and whether they take NHS or private work, not the quality of the teaching. As a reference point, a newly qualified orthoptist in Scotland starts on NHS band 5, which begins at £34,544 in 2026/27. See the full pay picture.

Paying for it

Full-time pre-registration study in Scotland is normally funded through a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan from the student finance body for the nation you study in, topped up by whatever health-specific support that nation runs. Allied health students are treated more generously than most because placements make part-time work hard to sustain.

The NHS Learning Support Fund is an England-only scheme, so it does not apply here. Scotland runs its own arrangements instead.

• SAAS standard student support for AHP courses (Scotland) — Scotland has no separate NHS bursary for most allied health professions. Scottish-domiciled students on AHP degrees studying in Scotland get the ordinary SAAS package: SAAS pays the tuition fees direct to the university on a non-repayable basis, and living costs come from a means-tested bursary plus a student loan. SAAS names separate funding packages only for paramedic, nursing and midwifery courses, so the other AHPs sit within standard undergraduate support.

All funding and bursaries · rules change every academic year, so check the current terms before you apply.

How this course compares

There are 5 other approved orthoptist courses in the UK. Because every one of them leads to the same registration, the differences that actually matter are practical: how long the course runs, whether the award is a bachelor's or a master's, where the placements are and what the university asks for at entry.