Sports Therapy BSc (Hons)

UCAS code BC96

Duration

3 Years

Location

Stoke-on-Trent campus

Learn how to help people with neuromusculoskeletal complaints recover from injury and make a major difference to other people’s lives through treatment and rehabilitation.

Our Sports Therapy degree will give you plenty of practical experience and the opportunity to work with real clients in our Sports Therapy Clinic.

Under supervision from staff, you could be dealing with anything from knee or back injuries through to complex musculoskeletal cases. Patients include elite athletes and specialist communities such as older people and those with comorbidities (such as cancer, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases amongst others).

You’ll learn in our pioneering new Telehealth Hub - an industry leading facility which enables students to develop skills in digital sport, exercise and healthcare. Students use the telehealth facility to assess, educate, monitor, and/or deliver healthcare interventions virtually. With more and more healthcare providers using web-based systems to provide care to patients, the skills learnt in our hub are future-proofing our students and preparing them for success in their future careers.

Our BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy degree leads to a range of exciting careers, whether you have ambitions to work in the professional sports environment or go into private practice.

On the course, you’ll learn how to do injury assessment, perform soft techniques like massage and joint mobilisation, and offer exercise for healthy clients and rehabilitation purposes.

You’ll put techniques into practice in our Rehabilitation Zone - that’s kitted out with Olympic weightlifting equipment and cardiovascular machines - and in our physiology lab, where we have specialist facilities for testing and measuring human performance.

There are also several modules aimed at building your research skills, culminating in a major research project in your final year.

You will be able to draw on the expertise of our research-active academics and staff with a wealth of clinical experience as sports therapists.

On successful completion of study, we will issue the following award: BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy

Work placements

We ensure every student completes 200 hours of practice as part of the award. Your work in our Sport Therapy (SUST) Clinic will count towards these hours.

There are also lots of other placement opportunities, combining clinical and field experience. These include links with football clubs like Stoke City FC and Port Vale FC, the national training ground at St George’s Park in Staffordshire, and cricket clubs.

We also have students going into NHS settings, working with local chiropractors and sports injury clinics.

As an undergraduate in our Sport and Exercise Department, you can become a volunteer with our Sports Academy too. You will be helping to deliver physical activity and classroom-based workshops to young people in schools and communities.

Course content

Our lecturing staff are all passionate professionals who are dedicated to ensuring the teaching and learning on the degree is inspiring, challenging, and accessible to all students. Our staff have all worked in industry; field, clinical and research based which allows them to bring their first-hand experiences to teaching. Whether that be emergency trauma on a football pitch, a particularly complex injury case or the chance to be involved with your lecturer’s latest data collection for research.

You will build knowledge surrounding soft tissue techniques, clinical anatomy, exercise prescription and rehabilitation and physiological response to exercise, biomechanics, and nutrition for injury. You will also complete a first aid and emergency trauma management course and gain work placement experience. In your final year you will design,

Our sessions are a mixture of theoretical learning and practical case scenarios in modest groups of up to 16 which means you are more readily supported with your studies and allows you to engage easily within the sessions.

Upon graduating, you will be a professional sports therapist ready to work across a dynamic and growing industry.

Academic year

The course operates on a modular basis that provides flexibility and choice. Our modules are 20 or 40 academic credits.  Each credit taken equates to a total study time of around 10 hours. Total study time includes scheduled teaching, independent study and assessment activity. Full-time students take modules worth 60 credits per semester, with part-time students taking proportionately fewer credits per semester. All students take a total of 120 credits per level and 360 credits for the degree as a whole. Your overall grade for the course and your degree classification are based on the marks obtained for modules taken at levels 5 and 6.  The full-time course has one start point in September.

Professional body accreditation

Accredited by the Society of Sports Therapists.

The Society of Sports Therapists accreditation logo

This course is accredited by the Society of Sports Therapists and includes a student membership at no additional cost during your studies. For more information on the benefits of student membership, visit The Society of Sports Therapists website.

NSS shows positive improvement in teaching

News

Teaching provision has improved across the University’s extensive course portfolio in this year’s National Student Survey results.

Modules

The tables provide an indicative list of the modules that make up the course for the current academic year. Each module is worth a specified number of credits. Our teaching is informed by research, and modules change periodically to reflect developments in the discipline. We aim to ensure that all modules run as scheduled. If for any reason a module cannot be run we will advise you as soon as possible and will provide guidance on selecting an appropriate alternative module where available.

Year 3 compulsory modules
Exercise For Special Populations 20 credits
Independent Investigational Project 40 credits
Peripheral And Vertebral Mobilisation 20 credits
Professional Clinic 40 credits

Entry requirements

112-120 UCAS Tariff points

  • GCE A Levels - grades BBC or equivalent
  • Pearson BTEC National Extended Diploma - grade DMM
  • Access to HE Diploma - Pass Access with a minimum of 80 UCAS tariff points. Applicants to Staffs who are taking the Access to HE Diploma receive a reduced tariff point offer as part of our access and participation plan activity
  • UAL Level 3 Extended Diploma - grade of Merit overall
  • OCR Cambridge Technical Extended Diploma - grade DMM
  • T Levels - Eligible T Level applications will be asked to achieve a minimum overall grade of P (A*-C) or Higher Pass as a condition of offer

A two-year foundation degree in Rehabilitation and Manual Therapies is available for applicants who do not have the appropriate entry qualifications for direct entry to the degree level course. After successful completion of the two-year FdSc Rehabilitation and Manual therapies course, students who meet the pre-requisites can top-up to our Sports Therapy BSc (or other Sport and Exercise BSc top up courses).

We understand that you might have experienced a challenging run up to higher education and may have not met the entry requirements as listed. If this is the case don’t worry, contact us and our team of expert advisors can guide you through the next stages of application, or help you find the perfect course for your needs.

For equivalent entry requirements in your home country, please see the information on our country pages.

Choose your country

Check our entry and English language requirements for your country.

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Facilities

The course utilises a range of industry-leading technologies and facilities to provide outstanding educational experiences.

Careers

Our graduates pursue a variety of rewarding roles, including working as sports therapists and sports massage therapists. Some set up their own businesses or clinics.

You can also work in injury clinics with a range of professionals or alongside athletes in sports such as football, rugby and martial arts.

If you go down the healthcare route, there are lots of job opportunities too. You could be working with specialist communities such as older people, clients who are obese, have diabetes or cancer. Exercise can help improve their quality of life.

You can also progress onto postgraduate study. We offer a range of Masters degrees at Staffordshire University linked to sport and exercise.

All students have access to Career Connect, our dedicated careers team.

Teaching and assessment

Teaching

Our sessions are a mixture of theoretical learning and practical case scenarios in modest groups of up to 16, which means you are more readily supported with your studies and allows you to engage easily within the sessions.

Assessment

Your course will provide you with opportunities to test your understanding of your subject informally before you complete the formal assessments that count towards your final mark. Each module normally includes practice or ‘formative’ assessments, for which you receive feedback from your tutor. Practice assessments are developmental and any grades you receive for them do not count towards your module mark. There is a formal or ‘summative’ assessment at the end of each module. This includes a range of coursework assessments, such as essays, reports, portfolios, performance, presentations, final year, independent project and written examinations. The grades from formal assessments count towards your module mark

Learning support

In addition to the excellent support you will receive from your course teaching team, our central Academic Skills team provides group and one-to-one help to support your learning in a number of areas. These include:

  • study skills such as reading, note-taking and presentation skills
  • written English, including punctuation and grammatical accuracy
  • academic writing and how to reference
  • research skills
  • critical thinking and understanding arguments
  • revision, assessment and examination skills
  • time management

Additional support

Our Student Inclusion Services support students with additional needs such as sensory impairment, or learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

Feedback

You will normally receive feedback on coursework assessments within 20 working days following the date of submission. Examination feedback may take a variety of formats. However, as a minimum, generic feedback will be made available to all students who take written examinations.

Your study time will consist of class contact hours, self-directed learning, assessment and placements where appropriate. Your actual contact hours will depend on the subject area, on the option modules you select and professional body requirements. 

Year 1

23% of time in lectures, seminars or similar
77% of time in independent study
0% of time in work based learning

Year 2

23% of time in lectures, seminars or similar
77% of time in independent study
0% of time in work based learning

Year 3

8% of time in lectures, seminars or similar
72% of time in independent study
20% of time in work based learning

Independent learning

When not attending lectures, seminars, laboratory or other timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. Typically, this will involve utilising a range of digital resources including our virtual learning environment; reading journals, articles and books; working on individual and group projects; undertaking research in the library; preparing coursework assignments and presentations, and preparing for examinations. Your independent learning will be supported by a range of excellent facilities. These include the library, open access computer facilities, informal learning zones, a range of laboratories and performance and studio spaces.

Year 1

57% practical assessments
33% coursework
10% written exams

Year 2

74% practical assessments
26% coursework
0% written exams

Year 3

53% practical assessments
47% coursework
0% written exams

Staff

Our lecturing staff are all passionate professionals who are dedicated to ensuring the teaching and learning on the degree is inspiring, challenging and accessible to all students. Our staff have all worked in industry; field, clinical and research based which allows them to bring their first-hand experiences to teaching. Whether that be emergency trauma on a football pitch, a particularly complex injury case or the chance to be involved with your lecturer’s latest data collection for research.

Rebecca Warnett

Senior Lecturer

Rebecca is course lead and a senior lecturer in Sports Therapy. Since graduating in 2014 from Staffordshire University with a degree in Sports Therapy she has worked in football, ran her own sports injury clinic alongside lecturing. 

Rebecca's profile

Edward Stanhope

Senior Lecturer

Edward is a graduate Sports Therapist and researcher. He specialises in exercise in people with non-communicable diseases, specifically the effects of exercise in women diagnosed with breast cancer throughout the stages of their care continuum.

Edward's profile

Fees

For the course starting on 22 September 2025 the tuition fees are:

Study option UK / Channel Islands International
Full-time £9,250 per year of study £16,750 per year of study

UK and Channel Island students: This tuition fee is agreed subject to UK government policy and parliamentary regulation. If the UK government passes appropriate legislation, the fee for subsequent years of study may increase in each academic year. But this increase will not exceed the rate of inflation as measured by RPIX**. Any change in fees will apply to both new and continuing students. The University will notify students of any change as early as possible. Further information about fee changes would be posted on the University’s website once this becomes available.

**RPIX is a measure of inflation equivalent to all the items in the Retail Price Index (RPI) excluding mortgage interest payments.

Included in the fees:
  • DBS checks where required for assessed modules 
  • Loan of subject related requirement where required for modules
Not included in the fees:
  • Text books are available from the library, but some students chose to purchase their own copies.
  • Printing
  • Travel costs to and from placements. We will have available placements within travel distance from the campus, or within proximity of your address
  • Clothing suitable for placements and facilities
  • Any optional field trips
Accommodation and living costs

Accommodation and living costs are not included in our fees. 

Sources of financial support

If you receive funding from Student Finance you may be eligible to apply for additional benefits. Details can be obtained by reading our additional funding web pages, or visiting www.gov.uk.

Scholarships and additional funding

If you are talented athlete, coach or official you could qualify for one of our sport scholarship or development schemes through our High Performance Academy.

You may also be eligible for other scholarships and bursaries. You can visit our funding page to find out more and check your eligibility.

Our students

The BSc Sports Therapy course is an interesting, engaging course that is practical and academic. The lectures are amazing and always there to help.

At the University there is a student Sports Therapy Clinic where we can gain experience with the help of our lectures. This is great as you get to see injuries first hand. Also, within the final year of this course you will have to complete external placement hours. This is another opportunity to gain an insight into the occupation which I am looking forward to next year.

There are loads of useful facilities at the University that are used during lectures. We have the sports therapy clinic rooms, biomechanics lab (which is incorporated into assignments) and physiological testing labs. The library is also a great facility with staff on hand to help with academic support.

Claire Parker

BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy

The facilities for sports therapy are amazing. I work within the student run Sports Therapy Clinic and am enjoying every minute which I spend working in there and developing my knowledge and experience with external clients. It definitely makes me look forward to graduating and developing a career as a sports therapist.

Georgia Lucas

BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy

From a very young age, I’ve always wanted to be a physio and help people – it's always been part of me and in my blood to be able to help people go back to how they were and better. In sports therapy you’re able to help people go from somebody who doesn’t believe in themselves, to somebody who makes it and beyond.

Olivia Hesketh

BSc (Hons) Sports Therapy

Apply

Location Award Study option Start date
Stoke-on-Trent campus BSc (Hons) Full-time 22 September 2025 Apply now

Rules and regulations

If you are offered a place at University of Staffordshire, your offer will be subject to our rules, regulations and enrolment conditions, which may vary from time to time.

Students of University of Staffordshire enter into a contract with us and are bound by these rules and regulations, which are subject to change. For more information, please see: University Policies and Regulations.

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