Sport and Rehabilitation Therapy BSc (Hons)

Play a key role in promoting and maintaining health and fitness through rehabilitation and conditioning, enabling people to maintain their healthy lifestyle, restore function, and in some serious cases, return to work. Learn how to treat pain and prevent injury through hands-on treatment and design rehabilitation plans. Meet and work with professionals in the fields of sport and exercise, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing and medicine.

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Overview

This course provides an exciting opportunity for students wishing to specialise in musculoskeletal rehabilitation related to sport, exercise and fitness.

Sports Rehabilitators and Therapists are involved in the management and rehabilitation of athletes and patients with musculoskeletal conditions arising from long-term medical conditions to short-term sports injuries. A graduate sport rehabilitator is an autonomous healthcare practitioner.

In working across a wide range of settings, graduates will often be required to work with other health professionals, such as physiotherapists, or as part of multi-disciplinary teams, and will need an appreciation of subjects including anatomy, pathophysiology, psychology, physiology, biomechanics, and strength and conditioning.

Why us?

Opportunity to complete vocational qualifications leading to industry recognised Personal Trainer and Massage Therapist awards
Includes a fully funded short course in Advanced Trauma Care (a requirement of BASRaT accreditation)
A wide variety of placement opportunities available through regional partnerships with sports centres, private fitness centres, private sports therapist and physiotherapists
Our Counselling, Psychotherapy and Occupational Therapy courses are 1st in the north-east for student satisfaction (Complete University Guide 2025)

Our Sport Sciences courses are ranked 17th in the UK (Guardian University Guide 2024)
In addition to specialised modules in therapy theory and practice, you will study modules in sports science and physiotherapy (biomechanics, physiology etc), strength and conditioning, psychology, anatomy and pathophysiology to gain British Association of Sport Rehabilitation and Therapy (BASRaT) accreditation
A number of academic staff work in practice to ensure teaching is current and relevant

Course structure

This course has a high degree of practical work as well as the normal series of lectures, seminars and small group activities. Many subjects now integrate many of these elements into one session using a 'flipped classroom' model with support from Canvas, our Virtual Learning Environment with in-built lecture capture system.

A number of modules are shared with physiotherapy to ensure consistency and quality of care.

Assessment is predominantly based on written assignments, with some exams, presentations and practical assessments, some associated with external qualifications.

Modules

Year 1 (national level 4):

Introduction to Sport and Rehabilitation Therapy Practice 1 (40 credits)
Functional Anatomy and Human Movement (20 credits)
Introduction to Physiology and Pathology (20 credits)
Fundamentals of Physical Activity and Exercise (20 credits)
Academic and Professional Development (20 credits)

Year 2 (national level 5):

Sport and Rehabilitation Therapy Practice 2 (40 credits)
Musculoskeletal Pathology, Therapy and Practice (20 credits)
Preventative and Rehabilitative Physical Activity and Exercise (20 credits)
Sport and Exercise Sciences in Practice (20 credits)
Research and Professional Development (20 credits)

Final year (national level 6):

Sport and Rehabilitation Therapy Practice 3 (20 credits)
Strength Conditioning and Prehabilitation (20 credits)
Sport and Exercise Nutrition (20 credits)
Exercise and Diet Behaviour Change (20 credits)
Dissertation (40 credits)

Facilities

You will be based in the Darwin Building which has recently benefited from a multi-million pound refurbishment and is home to our Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy courses.

State of the art equipment includes Anatomage Table, Environmental Chamber, DEXA scanner, BTE Primus Dynonometer, Vicon and XSENS 3D motion capture.

Entry requirements

We don’t currently display entry requirements for United States. Please contact the Student Admin team on studentadmin@sunderland.ac.uk or 0191 515 3154.

BTEC Extended National Diploma (Sport and Exercise Science, Health Science, and Applied Science preferred) DDM. Other BTEC National Diplomas may be considered with AS or A2 Biology/Human Biology/PE at grade B.

Our admissions policy uses a range of flexible options to support you to study with us. This may include a reduced offer of up to 16 UCAS tariff points, (or equivalent). Find out if you are eligible.

Your completed application form will be reviewed by our Admissions Team to ensure that you have the required entry qualifications. If you meet these requirements, then your application will be individually assessed by the Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation Admissions Tutor and if successful, you will be shortlisted for interview.

Fitness to practise

Medical assessments of your mental and physical health and disclosure of criminal convictions apply to all applicants. This means you are required to complete the following:

A health declaration form. Here you must demonstrate that you are of good health, good character, and can satisfactorily pass occupational health screening.
A self-declaration form about your conduct.
Obtain an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. The cost of the DBS check is covered by the University.

Instructions on how you complete these checks will be sent to you once you hold a conditional firm offer with us. These forms are then reviewed alongside your application, and you must meet both the academic and fitness to practise requirements before you will be given an unconditional offer. If you are successful, you will also need to complete an annual declaration form to confirm you are fit and there are no changes to your DBS.

Care experience

We prefer you to have some experience of delivering care in a professional or voluntary capacity and have a reference from a current or recent employer or educational institution. Evidence of the experience gained, understanding of the profession and a genuine, reasoned commitment to studying a professional course must be explicit in your personal statement to be selected for interview.

Interview

All applicants must attend an individual interview as part of the selection process. This may take place via Teams or in person.

Second reference

You may be asked to provide additional references in terms of workplace experience/placement to support your application. Please note this must not be the same reference you have submitted as part of your application.

Personal qualities

We select students based on their knowledge, motivation, experience, values, and behaviours, not just academic ability. You need to demonstrate the ability to:

Study academic subjects at the level of the course
Debate topics and issues
Draw on conclusions from written material
Study independently and as part of a group
Use computers and technology associated with teaching, learning and assessment
Interact with patients and colleagues in a caring and compassionate manner
Be comfortable with hands-on techniques such as massage, both as a giver and receiver to both genders
Demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to, the course

If English is not your first language, you need an overall IELTS score of 7, with at least 6.5 in each band.

Fees and finance

The annual fee for this course is:

£9,535 if you are from the UK/Ireland/EU settled/pre-settled

Undergraduate fees are set according to rules from Government in line with forecast inflation. The fee for your first year of study for 2025/26 will be £9,535. You will pay tuition fees for every year of study. Fees may increase every year based on the Retail Price Index.

Please note, we're unable to accept international applicants.

Learn more about settled status, pre-settled status, special discounts, visa requirements and Common Travel Area (CTA) agreements for the Republic of Ireland applicants in our Help and Advice article.

Take a look at the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

This information was correct at the time of publication.

A student guiding another student stretching their arm

Career ready

Career routes include sports clubs and teams, private musculoskeletal rehabilitation practices, GP practices, physiotherapist assistant roles and self-employment.

Graduates on BSc (Hons) Sports and Exercise Sciences have been successful in setting up their own businesses in massage therapy and personal training.

Placement

Work placements are a key element to BASRaT accreditation. You are required to complete at least 400 hours of clinical/work placement through regional partnerships with hospital trusts, GP partnerships, sports clubs and private fitness centres, sports therapists, osteopaths and with the possibility of working with Physiotherapy and Clinical Skills students in commercial sports injury clinics. Placements will be organised through the University placement office.

Vocational qualifications

You will have the option to attain vocational qualifications through industry recognised awarding bodies such as Personal Trainer Awards and Massage. These qualifications incur additional fees. However, the Advanced Trauma Care Course (a requirement of BASRaT accreditation) is fully funded by the University.

Meet the students

Sunderland is a friendly, inclusive, and inspiring place to be

Kayleigh Wenn

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Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing.

Page last updated: 19 November 2024

We aim to provide clear, accurate and timely information to prospective and current students. We continuously review and enhance course content in consultation with our students and the information provided on our website is the latest available. If you have received an offer from us to start a course, we will communicate any important changes to you in writing. We will always seek to ensure that our prospective students are fully aware of the basis on which they are accepting an offer.