Second Undergraduate Degree

I haven't myself. However, if they require you to have studied within the last 5 years and your A Levels (or other Level 3 qualifications) don't fulfil the requirements, you could always do an Access course. It will unfortunately mean you spend a year out of university, but it also can mean you don't have spend a year doing a foundation year unncessarily. In terms of costs, it's probably the more economical choice.

Just out of interest, was your first degree a life science degree? If so, you might be able to do a course at master's or PGDIp (conversion) level (see the list here: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/education/approved-programmes/approved-programmes-results/?ProviderQueryString=&Professions=270450014&Levels=Postgraduate&IntakeModes=Open&PageSize=15). For some of the courses, you can do it with any undergrad degree. Personally, I'd go for the conversion course or MSc, both of which last 1 year which usually means roughly £9k tuition as opposed to the 3 year tuition, unless you're keen to spend another 2 years on top at uni.

Hey sneaky, nice avatar

Anyway, I think it varies from course to course and institution to institution. I'm doing Therapeutic Radiography at Sheffield Hallam and they were more than happy to accept my undergraduate degree in Chemistry, even though it was 20+ years ago.

However I was prepared to do an online A-level in biology if they had insisted on recent academic study. You can do an A-level online in less than a year.

Have you looked into Radiotherapy? You get an extra 1k bursary per year for it as well due to it being on the "hard to recruit" list

I can also get that extra £1000 a month for doing Diagnostic Radiography I mainly didn't want to do Radiotherapy because I don't think I could handle it, there's a lot of cancer in my family so it would hit too close to home! But who knows, i'll look into it!

Well, I will say that working with cancer patients isn't like most people expect it to be. You tell people you're in oncology and they have this image of some kind of horrific dystopian nightmare, and its not like that at all. The beauty of radiotherapy is you get to see most patients every day for several weeks, so you really get to know them and form a relationship with them. It's generally a really positive, happy place - yes you will see some things that are quite tough, but that's the same in most healthcare professions. My friends daughter is doing diagnostic radiography and her first week of her first placement she saw domestic violence victims, abused children, road traffic accidents, severely ill covid patients.....

I would encourage you to go and do work experience in a department, but you can't because of covid However, there was this webinar done last month by SHU to try and compensate a little bit for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJIZZplvH0A&feature=emb_logo

Also, I would recommend following Jo Macnamara (course lead at SHU) on twitter, she's constantly posting loads of stuff about the career.
https://twitter.com/SHURadiotherapy

Hi MindMax2000,

Yeah I had considered an Access course, and I would definitely do it but there aren't any living cost bursaries or loans for that type of course from what i've seen, and I haven't got the money to study full-time and pay for rent, bills, etc.

My first degree was a life science degree (Molecular Genetics), but all of the postgraduate course are 2+ years (presumably because you need to do a certain number of hours on placement) and the postgraduate loan is a max of around £11k. Plus again there isn't a living cost loan for postgraduate degrees.

Feels like i'm stuck haha!

How are you enjoying the course?