Are you passionate about empowering people of all different abilities to live their best lives? Do you want to make a real impact? Then our HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council) and RCOT (Royal College of Occupational Therapists) accredited BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy degree course might be the right one for you! You’ll learn how to take a holistic approach to supporting people across the lifespan by unlocking their potential to engage in those everyday ‘occupations’ that matter most to them. By ‘occupations’, we mean all the activities that people do that occupy their time, are meaningful to them, and contribute to their overall health and wellbeing (or not).
Through our expert-led, creative and interactive teaching strategies, real-world placements, and a blend of theory to inform practice, we’ll train you to take a client-centred and evidence-based approach to this critical Allied Health Professional role. You’ll gain the knowledge and skills needed to work with people and communities in their everyday environments and create tailored interventions to make that real impact.
Why study BSc (Hons) Occupational Therapy?
Room to specialise
Working as an Occupational Therapist is deeply rewarding, and Occupational Therapy is an incredibly dynamic profession. What sets Occupational Therapy apart is its broad scope of practice and flexibility. As an Occupational Therapist, you can choose from a wide range of speciality areas that align with your passions and career aspirations. For example, speciality areas include acute and emergency care, children, young people and families, learning disabilities, long-term conditions, healthy ageing, mental health, neurological practice, oncology, rehabilitation, social care, dementia care, frailty, or palliative and end of life care, and inclusive built environments.
Whether someone is recovering from an illness or injury, living with long-term condition, or facing emotional and social challenges, Occupational Therapists support people to overcome many barriers to living and participating fully in life. The vast scope of practice ensures that you can develop a role that is both personally meaningful and professionally fulfilling.
Occupational Therapists have an important role to play in interprofessional teams across different sectors, including hospitals, schools, community services, mental health settings, care homes, and even the criminal justice system. The resourcefulness of this career means you're not confined to one setting, you have great opportunity to branch out, specialise, and shape a career that truly resonates with your values and goals.
Register as a qualified Occupational Therapist
As mentioned, our course is accredited by the HCPC and RCOT. This means you’ll graduate not only with a degree, but with the recognised professional status required to step straight into practice, fully equipped, employable, and trusted to deliver high-quality care.
A degree shaped by industry
This course has been designed by industry-experts and developed in partnership with local employers, ensuring you gain the most current, real-world skills needed to thrive in today’s health and social care landscape, and beyond.
By integrating hands-on experience and professional insight, our course prepares you to step confidently into a wide range of practice settings, including the NHS, social care, voluntary sector, and private practice. You'll graduate with the knowledge, practical skills, and professional networks that industry employers look for in this competitive job market.
As well as this, we pride ourselves on keeping up to date with the changing landscape of Occupational Therapy both in the UK and globally, meaning the opportunities open to you after graduating from this internationally relevant degree are endless.
Practice placements
Practice-based learning (placements) is a vital part of the course, giving you the hands-on experience needed to grow your skills and confidence. Throughout the degree, you’ll typically complete three practice placements across Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, London, and surrounding areas. These full-time 10-week placement blocks will give you the chance to put your learnt knowledge and skills into practice whilst gaining a feel for a real-world experience in a variety of settings. These placements are not only integral to your learning but also help you build strong professional networks that often lead directly to employment.
On placement you’ll have the support and guidance of a BNU link tutor and a practice educator, as well as the team and management of the placement you’re in.
To successfully complete the degree programme, you'll need to complete and pass a minimum of 1,000 hours of practice placement, meet the professional standards set by the HCPC and RCOT, and pass all academic and practical assessments. These placements are key to preparing you for a successful, rewarding career as a qualified Occupational Therapist.
We work in close partnership with NHS Trusts, local authorities and a wide range of health, social care and education providers, giving you a strong foundation to pursue local and regional opportunities immediately after graduation.
Professional facilities
You’ll benefit from interprofessional learning opportunities that allow you to work with other students and professionals from a range of health and care backgrounds. This experience will help you build a strong understanding of how Occupational Therapists work as part of a team, while also developing your knowledge of specialist equipment and approaches to client-centred care.
Using our state-of-the-art facilities, including simulation labs and industry-standard clinical equipment, you’ll have the chance to practise and refine your knowledge and skills in a safe, supportive environment. Regular simulation sessions will immerse you in replicated real-life scenarios, helping you build confidence, problem-solving abilities, and technical skills essential for practice.
What will I study?
Occupational Therapy involves working with everyday people with a range of physical, mental health and social needs. As an Occupational Therapist, you’ll work with people of all ages to improve their wellbeing and quality of life.
Our Occupational Therapy degree will equip you with the knowledge and skills to practise as a competent Occupational Therapist in a wide variety of health, social care, community and alternative environments. Your studies will cover the theory and practical aspects of this exciting and varied role.
Working with a range of people who all have different requirements, you’ll need to understand a client’s lifestyle so that you can work with them to set goals and create an intervention plan. We help you take a holistic approach to a client’s physical and mental wellbeing and assess their specific needs.
You’ll delve into a range of degree modules that will teach you the knowledge and skills to assess, plan, implement and evaluate assessment and intervention plans in a range of settings, including hospitals, community settings and schools, while establishing realistic goals with clients, or know when to refer them to other professionals when needed.
Service users in need of support from an Occupational Therapist play a central role in your learning, as will their family and friends. So, you’ll learn how to organise rehabilitation and support groups for clients and their carers and how to contribute to the design, planning, analysis, audit, development and evaluation of services.
We recognise that training to become an Occupational Therapist is not only a great profession to work in, but also one that comes with emotional and personal challenges. That’s why we place your wellbeing and development at the heart of our degree programme, equipping you with the support and guidance needed to grow into a confident, capable Occupational Therapist.
Some days may be emotionally demanding, which makes having a safe and supportive environment essential. At BNU, we foster a close-knit, encouraging community where you can turn to both your peers and our dedicated teaching staff for support and reassurance through shared and individual challenges. We take pride in truly getting to know our students. Throughout your degree course, you’ll benefit from personalised, one-to-one support from your tutors and the wider academic team.
