Speech and Language Therapy MSc

I'm not doing my degree at Birmingham, but as far as I know the timetable/hours are quite similar across the board. (For reference I'm doing my SLT MSc in Essex).

Most weeks we are in 5 days a week, 10-5 (two lectures with an hour lunch), plus additional work (coursework, essays, etc). It is very very intensive, I definitely work more than my partner who has a 35 hour work week. You are expected to do a lot of work outside of lectures.

Placement is often 1 short term placement, such as 8 days spread across one month (2 days a week). Then there's a block placement which is six weeks long, four days a week.
In terms of time off, on my course we have 2 weeks over Christmas, and a month during the summer.

Plenty of people on my course have children to work around and they manage perfectly fine!

Not at all! It's a fantastic course and I can't recommend it enough if you're passionate about speech and language therapy.

All lectures are in person, they are only ever online if the lecturer cannot get into uni because of train strikes, for example. I think I have had maybe one or two online lectures since starting.

The first year is pediatric placements, the first is in a school setting and the second (the block placement) is clinical. The second placement is four days a week with one day for self study which would be used to fill out placement work and prepare interventions and assessments for the following week of placement.

Although the course is, on paper, five days a week, in reality you can expect to work at least one weekend day, and quite late in the evenings during the week. Placement is much more easygoing, however, as you only have the placement workbook to work on- all other exams and assignments are completed before placement starts.

Hiya, thanks so much for your reply. I’m really glad that you’re enjoying the course, it sounds great although intense. So when not in placement period, you’re on campus Monday to Friday regarding the 5 days a week? And lectures can be in the evening, even on weekends? I don’t mind going 4-5 days a week for placement but a bit worried about 5 days on campus every week when not doing placements.

Sorry, what I meant to say was even outside of lectures you would need to be doing work- exam prep, assignments, etc. Lectures take place from 10am to 5pm every day monday to friday (unless you do an optional module such as BSL, which is in the evening, 6-8pm). The assignment workload is very very heavy which is why there's such a time commitment outside of lectures!

The exact timetable can vary every now and then (at the moment I have very short days on Mondays and Tuesdays, finishing at 1pm) but you would need to be prepared and able to be at uni for 5 days each week, as that is the timetabling more often than not!

In terms of working alongside...we don't:') I have one classmate who does 15 hours a week but REALLY struggles and it's not sustainable at all for her, long term. But needs must, so if it was non negotiable you would find a way i'm sure! Are you familiar with the NHS learning support fund? Its £5,000 a year and definitely made the difference between me needing to work and not needing to. If you're getting student finance you're eligible for the NHS bursary on this course. They also reinburse for placement costs.

Definitely spot on with the placement vs assignment ratio- the occupational therapy students who we occasionally work with had already done a clinical placement by January this year, and have far far fewer assignments. We have had 9 assignments/exams since November already. Some are more important than others though

Good luck! It's a tough course at times but incredibly fulfilling and it's nice being surrounded by so many really knowledgeable and passionate students

No problem! I hope you do go ahead with the course- and feel free to message me any time

Hiya! V late to this but wasn’t able to message you. What month did placements start for the Essex masters? Ty!