Occupational Therapy (3-year) (BSc)
UCAS Code: B920 BSc/OccThThis is a three-year full-time programme leading to eligibility to apply for registration with the Health Professions Council and professional membership of the College of Occupational Therapists.
The Programme starts in September of each year and is based at Cardiff University, Ty Dewi Sant, Heath Park Campus, Cardiff.
From its inception in 1964, the School of Occupational Therapy has run a full-time course of study leading to a professional qualification in Occupational Therapy with eligibility to apply for Registration with the Health Professions Council. Initially this was through a nationally examined Diploma, which was replaced in 1986 by an externally moderated/internally assessed Diploma (DipCOT) using the Diploma 81 syllabus introduced by the College of Occupational Therapists in 1981. This scheme was validated for five intakes, and was replaced by the current BSc Occupational Therapy course from the 1991 intake. On initial validation, the scheme was designated as a General honours degree but after a review during 1994 it was upgraded to a fully classified Honours Degree.
The integration of practice education studies into the course using, as placement themes, the sequential problem-solving stages of assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation was a strength of the original Diploma course which has in the main been retained in both 1991, 1996, 2001 and now 2007 degree programmes.
The programme team uses a student-centred / problem-based approach to learning (PBL).
Assessments
Assessment within the programme is consistent with a problem-based, student-directed approach integrating aspects of learning throughout the curriculum. A range of different assessment procedures will be used to widen students’ opportunities to learn from their performance within the curriculum and to encourage high standards by offering a variety of different assessment tools to meet differing needs. For example, the learner who does not perform well in written assignments also has the opportunity to perform in a viva voce or develop skills through a patchwork text.
Practice education should be considered an integral part of the assessment programme. It should not be viewed in isolation from academic assessments as experience from practice education is encouraged to be integrated where it might contribute to the development and understanding of the content of academic assessments and therefore to the achievement of the overall learning outcomes at each level.
In recognition of the validity of the assessment selected for the professional development of occupational therapists, some of the assessments selected for this programme share concepts, ideas and structures to those used on other pre-registration programmes in Wales. This is commensurate with the harmonisation agenda of the Assessment Strategy of Cardiff University (2005) which also recognises that justifiable and beneficial differences between programmes may exist due to specific academic and contextual needs.
Admission Criteria
This programme is offered on a full-time basis and welcomes applications from all age groups.
Applicants are required to have 300 UCAS points from 18 units.
Those applicants with little evidence of study will be required to undertake recent study to prove their ability to work to A level standard. All applicants will be judged individually. The standard entry requirement for students on an appropriately validated Health/Health Care Professions Access Course is 72 credits at level 3.
Those applicants with overseas qualifications will be considered on an individual basis, but where English is not the first language, an appropriate certificate of proficiency in English must be held, e.g. IELTS level 7.
Application Procedure
Applications direct through UCAS.
There are open evenings for information on the full-time entry route.
See this course on the University's Coursefinder website.