If you used Clearing in 2024, how did you find it?

Bsc in physiotherapy or sports therapy?

annamebel

Any advise daughter not sure

Reply 1

$hadow

Original post by annamebel

Any advise daughter not sure

So both are great courses, I have a friend that said he did a BSc in sports therapy first and then an MSc in physiotherapy after (due to lack of regulation by the HCPC, thus lacking `employment opportunities`) and he said that sports therapy was the "more enjoyable" of the two for him, but both are very hands-on and both learn exercise physiology, clinical rehabilitation and manual therapy skills.

These degrees tend to differ mainly in the following

Regulation by the HCPC,

Where they `typically` work and the `employment opportunities`,

Difficulty and expected knowledge; physiotherapy is more medical and thus more is generally expected of their students.

Physiotherapy has three main elements: Musculoskeletal, Cardiopulmonary and Neurological Rehabilitation; whereas sports therapy is namely, Musculoskeletal and Sports Specific Rehabilitation.

Because sports therapy (and sport therapists) are not regulated by the HCPC, the opportunities available to sports therapy graduates is often much less and generally a harder route to secure employment within elite sports and the NHS due to insurance reasons and lack of professional regulation as a health profession and protected title.

I graduated physiotherapy in 2017 and LOVED it, I found it super interesting and enjoyable, I was fascinated by the medical side of physiotherapy and this eventually led me to medical school (5/6 at the moment).

Based on the current job climate, and the lack of HCPC regulation of sports therapists at the present time (they are requesting every couple of years but have been unsuccessful) I would definitely choose physiotherapy, based on post-graduate job opportunities and dare I say it, better prestige.

Best of luck!

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

normaw

Volunteer Team

Original post by annamebel

Any advise daughter not sure

In addition to the above, the same question was discussed in the following thread:

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7498347

Reply 3

UCLan Student

Official Rep

Original post by annamebel

Any advise daughter not sure

Hi there! 👋

Nice to meet you, my name is Siobhan and I’m a 3rd year physiotherapy student at UCLAN!

In terms of the main differences between physitoherapy and sports theory is that physiotherapists can work in so many different fields, whilst sports therapy is narrowed down to sports injuries and rehabilitation. ⚽️🏈🎾

In Physiotherapy you study differs modules such as musculoskeletal, neurological and cardiopulmonary which is all a bit more medical than sports therapy. This also means that when you do your placements you will get the chance to work in all these fields and help you narrow down what you most prefer. This also opens up your job opportunities as physiotherapists can work in so many different places! 🩻🏥🩺

Sports therapy is a great course too but is limited to sports alone. If you’re really passionate about working in this field then I would most definitely recommend this for you 😄 But if you want to open up your options and are unsure of what exactly you want to specialise in then I would recommend Physiotherapy. You can still do sports rehab as a physio!

The last thing that is the biggest difference between these courses is that physios are regulated by the HCPC and can be in the Chartered society of physiotherapy, whilst sports therapist do not have this. This means that if you do sports therapy, you may encounter issues with employment opportunities later on as a lot of places like to have the ‘protection’ of a regulatory body. A lot of people on my course did a 3 year sports therapy degree and then went on to do a physio degree to sort this issue out.

However, at the end of the day I would recommend looking at the modules of your desired uni and see if the day to day life is something you can see yourself in!

I will drop down below UCLAN’s modules as an example for you to have a browse around! Hope this has helped at all and please let me know if I can be of any more assistance ☺️

Physiotherapy, BSc (Hons) Degree Course - UCLan

Sports Therapy, BSc (Hons) Degree Course - UCLan

Siobhan (3rd year Physiotherapy student at UCLAN)