Where to study physio in UK?!?!!!!

[Flarenixie]

Hi)
I applied to Nottingham (rejection after interview) Keele(accepted after interview) Hertfordshire(Accepted with no interview) Brunel (accepted with no interview) East london( rejection). Nottingham as a great rep but they tend to cherry pick so can be hard to get into, Keele although lovely would have been a pain to get to ( I did'nt want to live on campus, plus the Physio building seemed dingy, "sorry to anyone studying there") I visited Herts and Brunel and Herts just seemed to have more going for it, all the labs were well equipped and the Tutors were helpful. I've had one placement which went well with lots of support, they have a P and R which is helpful to any one commuting, and well I love it here, haha......Im sure once you ve started to look at uni's more, some will stand out more than others. Good luck


Karen

[oscar]

I did my physio degree at QMU....it was a good course and great being in Edinburgh! The only downside is that it's now moved 8 miles out of town to Mussleburgh, but I hear the facilities are great at the new campus QMU has an excellent physio reputation in Scotland (it's probably the best place to do it given the feedback I've heard about RGU and Glasgow Cally!) Plus if you want a physio job when you graduate the job market is much better here than in England!! Out of the 19 that graduated in my class in November 07, 12 now have jobs- pretty amazing given the current climate!! (oh I did the MSc course hence the small class numbers).

[Laura01]

I am going to give an extremely biased yet accurate opinion since I studied the undergraduate course at RGU. Of the scottish unis, from what I understand, Calley and QMU don't get any clinical placements until 3rd year I think this is way to late to get the clinical experience to know that you will enjoy the job for which you are training. The emphasis at RGU is on clinical practice where as at QMU is research. Apart from the fact its 150 miles north of Glasgow the campus is in central aberdeen and all brand new in 2002. If you are based in Glasgow you can get placements here. The RGU masters course is also the only UK course accredited in the US.
I think in general people are pretty narrow minded when choosing unis in scotland and like yourself always go for the main cities. I was offered places at calley and RGU and am happy with my choice. As for employability clinicians I have spoken to seem to think that RGU graduates are ready to hit the ground running rather than having their hand held due the significant differences in clinical education. If you do well on a placement you'll have a good chance of being offered a job there when your qualified.

[oscar]

fair enough, horses for courses! Yes I agree 3rd year is pretty late on...I did the MSc and we went on placement in our 1st year, much better in my mind too! As far as I know the head of physio has plans to change the structure of the course for that and other reasons....you do tend to find employers tend to take on new grads that have trained in that town, I guess out of familiarity as well as a understanding of the training that goes on there. You do of course get exceptions, I proved that myself by training at QMU and then getting a permanent job in Aberdeen, having never set a foot up here when I was a student!

At the end of the day its personal choice, go and have a look at the unis and decide for yourself!

[Laura01]

thats quite funny oscar- i trained up the road but now am working in glasgow was never on placement here either!
I suppose if your changing courses you have probably given it a good deal of thought already. I would suggest that you go and do a bit of shaddowing, visit a department and see exactly whats involved.
Laura

[tiger7372]

I'm a final year student in Manchester - it has a great reputation, good facilities (we are moving soon to a purpose built facility in leafy Didsbury) and so on. If you are a student who just does the work and so on it's great but they aren't too supportive of additional work you do. I chair the Students' Executive Committee for the CSP and also sit on CSP Council. I basically have to work my ass of as I get zero support from the uni (other unis do give plenty of support like Nottingham).

Some bits about Manchester though - one of the biggest schools (approx 140 / year); the first physio school in the country (1911); and the first to offer graduate physiotherapy. It has extensive links around the North West and usually yields well rounded and considerate graduates.

Visit the crappy website (MMU - Manchester Metropolitan University) for more info

Good luck!