Allied Health Professions

Route comparison

Degree, pre-registration master’s or apprenticeship?

Of the 677 approved pre-registration courses in this dataset, 314 are on the undergraduate degree route, 203 on the pre-registration master’s route, 124 on the degree apprenticeship route and 36 on the smaller routes below. Two of those routes borrow the tuition and add a £5,000 a year non-repayable grant in England; the third pays you a wage and charges you nothing. Here is what each route costs, how long each takes, and which one fits your situation.

BScMSc pre-regApprenticeship
314 Undergraduate degree courses 12 professions · 89 universities
203 Pre-registration master’s courses 15 professions · 70 universities
124 Degree apprenticeship courses 12 professions · 46 universities
£32,073 Band 5 starting salary England, 2026/27 — the same whichever route you took

The choice is about money and time, not about the qualification

All three routes are regulated to the same standard and all three end in the same place: a name on the regulator’s register and a first post on the same band. No employer recruits on how you qualified. What actually separates them is how you pay for the years in between, and how many years there are.

The undergraduate degree is the widest door. It has the most courses by a long way, it needs no previous degree, and it is the only route most people can plan around with any confidence, because a university place is something you can apply for. The trade is time and borrowing: the whole length of the course on a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan, softened in England by a non-repayable grant.

The pre-registration master’s is the same regulated content in less time, and it exists because a lot of people arrive at this decision holding a psychology or sport science degree. It is harder work per week rather than easier overall, and the funding is the part people get wrong — see the section below, because getting it wrong costs thousands.

The apprenticeship is the only route where the money runs the other way. You are an employee, you are paid from the first day, and you contribute nothing towards the training. The reason it is not the obvious answer for everyone is supply: you need an employer to create and fund the post before you can apply, so a place is advertised as a job vacancy rather than as a course, and there are far fewer of them than there are university places. In practice most go to people already working in the service.

The three routes, side by side

Course counts are of approved pre-registration programmes in this dataset. Funding figures are England’s for 2026/27; the other three nations are covered further down.

BSc

Undergraduate degree

A full-time undergraduate degree with supervised practice placements built into every year. You qualify and register at the end of it, with nothing further to complete.

Who it suits
School and college leavers, Access to Higher Education students, and career changers who do not already hold a degree.
You apply to
The university, through UCAS.
Course lengths published
2–4 years
Approved courses here
314
Universities
89
Professions offering it
12
Nations
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
MSc pre-reg

Pre-registration master’s

The same regulated curriculum and the same placement requirement as the degree, compressed into a shorter, denser programme for people who already hold a degree.

Who it suits
Graduates, usually in a related subject such as psychology, sport and exercise science, biomedical science or a health science.
You apply to
The university directly, or through UCAS, depending on the provider.
Course lengths published
2–3 years
Approved courses here
203
Universities
70
Professions offering it
15
Nations
England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
Apprenticeship

Degree apprenticeship

A job with a degree attached. An employer recruits you, pays you from the first day and releases you to study; the training cost is met from the apprenticeship levy.

Who it suits
People already working in health or social care — support workers, assistants, technicians — and anyone who cannot afford to stop earning for three or four years.
You apply to
An employer with a funded vacancy, not the university.
Course lengths published
2–4 years
Approved courses here
124
Universities
46
Professions offering it
12
Nations
England and Scotland

What you pay, and what you get

Cost of each route, from the funding dataset
  Undergraduate degreePre-registration master’sDegree apprenticeship
Tuition Borrowed. A tuition fee loan of up to £9,790 a year in 2026/27, paid straight to the university and repaid out of earnings once you are working.Borrowed. A tuition fee loan of up to £9,790 a year in 2026/27, paid straight to the university and repaid out of earnings once you are working.None. The apprenticeship funding rules bar the provider and the employer from asking you to contribute to the cost of training or assessment — the apprentice pays £0.
Living costs A maintenance loan of up to £10,830 a year living away from home outside London, or £14,135 in London, or £9,118 living with parents. Partly means tested.A maintenance loan of up to £10,830 a year living away from home outside London, or £14,135 in London, or £9,118 living with parents. Partly means tested.A wage. You are an employee with a contract, holiday pay and pension from day one, and you take on no student debt for the apprenticeship.
Money you keep In England, the NHS Learning Support Fund training grant of £5,000 a year, which you do not pay back, plus £1,000 a year on shortage subjects.In England, the NHS Learning Support Fund training grant of £5,000 a year, which you do not pay back, plus £1,000 a year on shortage subjects.No NHS Learning Support Fund — its rules exclude anyone drawing a wage or salary from an employer during the course. That is the trade: you earn instead of being granted.
Where it leads Registration with the profession’s regulator and a first post on the same band as every other route. In England that is band 5, from £32,073. Registration with the profession’s regulator and a first post on the same band as every other route. In England that is band 5, from £32,073. Registration with the profession’s regulator and a first post on the same band as every other route. In England that is band 5, from £32,073.

NHS Learning Support Fund (LSF)

The NHS Learning Support Fund is extra, non-repayable money for students on eligible pre-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health profession courses at universities in England. It sits on top of the ordinary student loans system rather than replacing it, so you must be eligible for both a tuition fee loan and a maintenance loan from the Student Loans Company to claim any element of it. The rules for 2026/27 are the 10th edition, published on GOV.UK.

Training grant
£5,000 per academic year
Specialist subject payment
£1,000 per academic year
Parental support
£2,000 per academic year
Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE)
Paid per claim; no fixed amount published
Exceptional Support Fund (ESF)
£3,000 per academic year (maximum)
Administered by
NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA), on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care
Academic year
2026/27

Not eligible

  • degree apprenticeships and any course where your employer pays you a wage or salary while you train
  • students in receipt of salary support from an NHS trust or other NHS entity during any part of the course
  • art therapy, dramatherapy and music therapy courses (not on the eligible course list)
  • osteopathy courses (not on the eligible course list)
  • post-registration and Continuing Professional Development courses
  • foundation years (LSF starts from Year 1)
  • paramedic DipHE and foundation degree courses

Full detail on the Learning Support Fund

2 smaller routes you will also see

MSci

Integrated master’s

An undergraduate application that runs straight through into master’s-level study without a second admissions round. You are funded as an undergraduate the whole way through and leave with a master’s award.

36 courses 8 professions
L7 apprenticeship

Postgraduate apprenticeship

A master’s-level apprenticeship. Employed, paid and released to study, but you already hold a degree in the discipline when you start. This is how the arts therapies do the apprenticeship route.

3 professions

Which routes each profession offers

“Not offered” means neither the profession’s own record nor any approved course in this dataset lists that route. Follow a profession through for the funding, the durations and the decision worked out for that profession specifically.

Approved courses on each route, by profession
Profession Undergraduate Pre-reg master’s Apprenticeship All courses Compare
Diagnostic radiographer 41 9 14 67 Compare routes
Dietitian 19 28 5 57 Compare routes
Occupational therapist 48 48 29 129 Compare routes
Osteopath 5 1 Route offered, no course listed 12 Compare routes
Paramedic 61 6 11 80 Compare routes
Physiotherapist 58 54 17 139 Compare routes
Podiatrist 14 8 8 31 Compare routes
Speech and language therapist 20 18 8 51 Compare routes
Operating department practitioner 30 1 28 59 Compare routes
Orthoptist 3 2 1 6 Compare routes
Prosthetist/orthotist 2 1 1 4 Compare routes
Therapeutic radiographer 13 3 2 18 Compare routes
Art therapist Not offered 11 Route offered, no course listed 11 Compare routes
Dramatherapist Not offered 5 Route offered, no course listed 5 Compare routes
Music therapist Not offered 8 Route offered, no course listed 8 Compare routes

What the route table does not tell you

Art therapists, dramatherapists and music therapists have no undergraduate route at all. You need a degree in the discipline — art, drama or music — before you can start the pre-registration training, which makes these postgraduate-entry professions in practice as well as on paper. Budget for the first degree as well as the second.

Every profession here has at least one approved apprenticeship standard behind it — 13 standards in total, 1 of them at level 7 for the postgraduate-entry professions. A standard existing is not the same as a vacancy existing, though: the standard is the specification an employer trains against, and it is the employer who has to fund the post.

Typical durations in the approved standards run from 2 years to 4 years — longer than the equivalent degree in most cases, because you are working while you study.

The funding is not the same across the UK

England borrows the tuition and adds a grant. The other three nations do something different, and it changes which route makes sense.

Scotland

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

ScotlandBSc
Scotland

Paramedic, Nursing and Midwifery Student Bursary (PNMSB)

Scotland runs a dedicated non-repayable bursary for pre-registration paramedic science, nursing and midwifery degree students studying in Scotland. It is worth £10,000 a year and, unusually, is not based on household income at all

Scotland2025/26BSc
Wales

NHS Wales Bursary Scheme

Wales pays the full tuition fees and adds a living-costs bursary for students on commissioned healthcare courses at Welsh universities, in exchange for a binding commitment to work in NHS Wales after you qualify. The commitment is two years after a three-year course, or eighteen months after a two-year course, and walking away from it triggers a fixed repayment

Wales2026/27BSc and MSc pre-reg
Northern Ireland

Department of Health (NI) healthcare bursary for AHP students

Northern Ireland keeps the old-style bursary model for allied health professions. If you study a first primary AHP degree at a university in Northern Ireland, the Department of Health pays your tuition fees in full and you can apply for a means-tested healthcare bursary towards living costs, plus a reduced-rate maintenance loan that is not income-assessed

Northern Ireland2026/27BSc

England’s schemes: 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). See all funding schemes.

Which route fits you

You do not have a degree yet

The undergraduate degree is the route with by far the most places. Apply through UCAS, start with no previous degree, and register at the end of it.

314 undergraduate courses

You already have a relevant degree

The pre-registration master’s covers the same regulated curriculum in less time — and in England it is funded like an undergraduate course, not by the postgraduate Master’s Loan.

203 pre-registration master’s courses

You need to keep earning while you train

The degree apprenticeship pays you a wage from day one and charges you nothing for the training. You apply to an employer, which is why the places are scarce.

13 approved standards

You are working out what it will cost

Tuition, maintenance, the non-repayable grants and the nation-by-nation differences — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland fund these courses in genuinely different ways.

8 schemes

Carry on from here

Where this page’s data comes from

Funding amounts on this page are taken from the published scheme documents for the academic year each scheme states. Rules change every year — check the scheme before you apply.