biomedical science - accredited courses

In order to become a diagnostically registered BMS in the NHS, you must complete a IBMS accredited course. The reason for this is because in order to become HCPC (health and care professions council) registered, you must have an IBMS accredited degree.
The HCPC is there to accredit Biomedical Scientists in order to protect the public from medical negligence and malpractice and can remove your license from you should this be the case.
You can do top up modules if you so choose to do the course at a RG uni, however, this would require potentially extra years of your own time, and finance (I knew a colleague who went to an RG uni and thought they’d be able to do a BMS job without it, not the case, they instead needed to do 7 top up modules which would take THREE YEARS, may as well do a new degree in that time).
If you ever want to go into diagnostics as a BMS and you go to an RG uni, then you will not be able to as you will not meet the standards (assuming no top up modules your end). You can go into research if you so wish with a non-accredited course such as food and/or cancer research but you will not be able to go into diagnostics.
If you have any further questions, I can answer them (I done both my BSc and MSc at an accredited university) but am currently working on my registration portfolio so I can tell you how to get there, but any specifics of the job falls outside of my scope at this point in time. 🙂

This is very helpful information. My daughter has applied to biomedical degrees at a number of universities. We are from the USA so we have been trying to figure this system out.
Being international she applied using UCAS and applied directly to some.
University of Brighton, University of Kent and University of Essex gave her conditional offers depending on a final exam grade that she won't get the results back until July 5th. For a backup she got unconditional offers to Cardiff Met, University of South Wales, Middlesex University and Greenwich.
We are trying to understand how we should proceed. She definitely want to do an IBMS accreditation, but some don't offer a placement yr and it seems like it might be hard to secure a placement in general for the ones that do. Any advice on schools or placement?

My apologies if I go off topic here, I do have a bad habit of it! I’ve also explained some of the ethical stuff you will be taught if taking a IBMS course.
I’m afraid I don’t know much regarding placement years (I mean actually finding one) but I would highly recommend applying for one! Initially when doing my bachelors, I thought I wanted to be a teacher (big mistake my end, wasted two years thinking this doing a course at an even bigger waste of my time university (Brighton, who provided absolutely zero support). Anyway, going off topic.
I would like to warn you in advance, from my experience and what’s I’ve read online, placement years tend to be without a salary in the NHS but they do tend to offer you the portfolio to legally become a Biomedical Scientist in place of a salary (you are expected to work for “free”) so you can begin work when you graduate which is a MASSIVE bonus as it shows you know the legal and ethical framework of being a Biomedical Scientist. I personally went to the university of the west of England (UWE) to do my degrees and personally, I found the support AMAZING, it was a very supportive university who gave me support whenever and wherever I needed it (unlike Brighton who basically watched me drown whilst pointing and laughing…). So I can’t offer advice on any of the university’s listed I’m afraid but I did know someone on my course who was from Florida last academic year who was trying to become a doctor and took the Masters at the same time, albeit 90% of my course was made of international students.
With regards to securing placement, I would phone hospitals around the country (or visit) and look into possibly requesting a lab tour (this can be done for free if the hospital permits) to see what the environment is like. I’m not going to lie, it’s not particularly glamorous, however, it does show you the machines you’ll be working on as well as any possible procedures.
I will describe the course now I was on but please be advised, this MAY NOT apply to your university.
The course can be intense, especially with regards to the content provided as well as what you will be offered (you may not be expected to do this but it was offered to us, albeit I did graduate in 2018 so take this with a grain of salt, albeit apparently they still run this).
In my anatomy and physiology course, we were offered the chance to work on cadavers and observe (donated and preserved human limbs and/or organs I.e genitals, legs, arms etc…), we were given the option of opting out which a large portion (about 20%) did. We were also given the option of attend Bristol university to witness a live autopsy but due to my limited funds at the time, I had to miss out.
At my university, we also did many case studies I.e you would be presented with patients in a hypothetical situation and blood results and clinical presentation given, and then told to come up with a diagnosis, albeit the diagnosis resulted in only a few marks as the majority comes from the pathophysiology (how the disease began and the logical process behind how it started to the present stage) and ruling out particular conditions I.e if a patient has kidney issues, you can rule out pre-renal causes due to hypertension (high blood pressure) as the kidney has sufficient blood supply, meaning if it is healthy can cause appropriate function.
Be warned though, you will be presented with scenarios which are real life most likely and shown fairly graphic images, one that stood in my mind was regarding a patient who developed necrotising faciatus (don’t Google this if you have a weak stomach) whereby a patient lost 90% of the skin on his body due to a love bite received in a pub one night. During my Masters, we had several people, mostly mothers walk out of particular lectures because, when being taught the human tissue act, learned decades ago some children were returned to their parents with organs missing for research and how they weren’t aware of it, so some people had to have several funerals prior to this act being produced.
News story here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/1999/feb/11/hospitals
This is the purpose of why you are taught these cases and scenarios, including the idea of patient confidentiality and the reason why it exists and know when to apply it as well as being able to know when it is overruled (typically in a scenario when the patient presents a threat to themselves or others) as well as the legal but questionably ethical issues behind medicine such as saviour siblings (My Sister’s Keeper being an ideal film for such an example) and knowing when to treat vs when not to treat (albeit a Biomedical Scientist's job is not to treat patients but to diagnose and monitor), but at least you are aware of it.
We were also presented several cases where patients were brought it and explained their history, including parents who were told when their kids were 4 that they would not make it to 18, which was the case and understanding real life scenarios so you know what you’re going in to and not going in blind as well as patients who are in remission but could have their condition return at any time and seeing how terrified they were (including having support relatives near them and crying through their presentation).
If you have any further question, please respond and if you like, I can give you some examples of my third year specialist subject (yes I still have these 7 years after graduating), demonstrating similar questions your daughter will likely be presented with (I chose clinical biochemistry).

Wow, such great information!
So, did you start uni at Brighton and then transfer to UWE? I believe she reached out to UWE to ask about applying directly to them as her UCAS is filled, but not sure if it's too late now for a September 25 start.

Oh no, no. I graduated from UWE with my Biomedical Science degree and because I enjoyed the thought of teaching, I went to do my PGCE postgraduate course (the UK's main method of entry into teaching, I was teaching 11-16 year olds) at Brighton (big disaster). This was just as the plague began though so luckily I managed to find a job quickly in the lighthouse labs (UK mass testing COVID labs), giving my lab career a bit of a kick start.
I can’t verify how good Brighton’s Biomedical Science course was as I never touched it but how their teaching course is so well received I’ll never know!
I don’t know how applying to UWE’s course goes with regards to direct application (I applied through UCAS as it was standard) but I can verify the staff at UWE are really supportive. 🙂

Thank you so much for your answers!
Sorry if it looks like I’ve been ignoring you, Ive been busy but I’ve been reading your answers and they have helped.
I’ve spoken to a friend who I know, who knows biomedical scientists and she said to go for unis that have placement years. I want to go to Edinburgh but they don’t have placement years but Bath does. I don’t know whether to risk it and go for a uni without placement year because I have heard it is hard to get them.

Thank you so much for your answers!
Sorry if it looks like I’ve been ignoring you, Ive been busy but I’ve been reading your answers and they have helped.
I’ve spoken to a friend who I know, who knows biomedical scientists and she said to go for unis that have placement years. I want to go to Edinburgh but they don’t have placement years but Bath does. I don’t know whether to risk it and go for a uni without placement year because I have heard it is hard to get them.

for biomedical science, i heard you need to do an accredited course, otherwise there would be more work in the long. but i also have heard that accredited courses are only if you want to pursue NHS. however, i don't know what to do, i may go for the NHS or i may not. will taking an accredited course affect my career path if i don't go for the NHS? most of the unis that give accredited courses often have low entry requirements so idk if thats sign that is a good idea