Sports Therapy BSc (Hons)

Teaching and Learning

The University places emphasis on enabling students to develop the independent learning capabilities that will equip you for lifelong learning and future employment, as well as academic achievement. A mixture of independent study, teaching and academic support through the personal academic tutoring system enables you to reflect on progress and build up a profile of skills, achievements and experiences that will enable you to flourish and be successful.

Teaching

You are taught through a combination of traditional and online lectures, theoretical and applied seminars and practical sessions in clinical and applied settings. You will learn the therapeutic skills of detailed anatomy, examination and assessment, joint mobilisations, massage, sports rehabilitation and other electrotherapy modalities. The course will also develop academic skills such as of scientific writing, researching, critical thinking and clinical reasoning utilising the current evidence base.

In addition, meetings with personal academic tutors are scheduled on at least 4 occasions in the first year and three occasions in each of the other years of a course.

You have an opportunity to consolidate your practical skills and communication skills in clinics, at external events and placements throughout the course. Links have been forged with a number of local professional and amateur football, rugby, cricket and basketball teams - other sports also provide placement opportunities. Students in previous years have also undertaken placements abroad with a range of sports teams.

Contact time

In a typical week at levels 4 and 5 you will have around 12-16 contact hours of teaching. In your final year you will normally have slightly less contact time in order to do more independent study and your placement.

Typically class contact time will be structured around:

• A 1 to 1.5 hour lecture and a two hour practical
• Or a 1 hour lecture and a three hour practical

Independent self-study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to undertake around 24-28 hours of personal self-study per week. Typically, this will involve using textbooks, journal articles and video or web-based resources to learn the theoretical aspects of the course and independently directed consolidation of practical skills involving handling, palpation and movements.

Independent learning is supported by a range of excellent learning facilities, including the Hive and library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources.

Teaching staff

Students will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the content of the modules on the course. The team includes senior academics with research and consultancy experience, postgraduate students, laboratory technical staff and demonstrators. In addition, you can expect to receive sessions with guest lecturers who are currently engaged in Sport and Exercise science activities outside of the university.

Teaching is informed by research and consultancy, and the majority of lecturers on the course have a higher education teaching qualification or are Fellows of the Higher Education Academy. You can learn more about the staff by visiting our staff profiles. 

Assessment

The course provides opportunities to test understanding and learning informally through the completion of practice or 'formative' assignments. Each module has one or more formal or 'summative' assessments which are graded and count towards the overall module grade.

Assessment methods include traditional laboratory reports and literature reviews through to practical examinations and video based assessments.

The precise assessment requirements for an individual student in an academic year will vary according to the mandatory and optional modules taken, but a typical formal summative assessment pattern for each year of the course is:

Year 1

Laboratory reports, practical examinations, online examinations, an anatomy spotter exam, a video based submission, a presentation and an exercise based portfolio.

Year 2

Online examinations, practical examinations, leaflets designed to inform athletes, a video based submission, a literature review, completion of a research based ethics form, scientific report and a workbook.

Year 3

Dissertation, practical examination, trauma examination, professional practice and reflective portfolios, business plan, presentations and a skills based competency account.

Feedback

You will receive feedback on practice assessments and on formal assessments undertaken by coursework. Feedback on examination performance is available upon request from the module leader. Feedback is intended to support learning and you are encouraged to discuss it with personal academic tutors and module tutors as appropriate. We aim to provide you with feedback on formal course work assessments within 20 working days of hand-in.

Programme specification

For comprehensive details on the aims and intended learning outcomes of the course, and the means by which these are achieved through learning, teaching and assessment, please download the latest programme specification document.