BSc Speech and Language Therapy

Do you enjoy working with people? Want to make a difference in people’s lives? If you are keen to become a registered speech and language therapist and want to shape the future of communication, our BSc Speech and Language Therapy pre-registration course can help you achieve your goals. Alternatively, if you are already in full-time employment in a relevant role, and have the support of your employer, you may be interested in our Speech and Language Therapy Degree Apprenticeship which also leads to BSc Speech and Language Therapy.

There's never been a better time to train as you can now apply for a £5000 grant that you won't need to pay back! There is also an extra £3000 funding available depending on your personal circumstances. You can find more information about eligibility and how to apply on the HSC Scholarships and Funding page.

Speech and language therapists work with people of all ages who experience communication and swallowing difficulties, enabling them to maximise their independence in their social, academic and working lives. Successful completion of our BSc Speech and Language Therapy programme leads to eligibility to apply for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a speech and language therapist.

This is a client-focused course which uses varied learning methods to integrate theory and clinical practice. You undertake day visits and blocks of practice education with speech and language therapists in the workplace. This practical experience helps prepare you for your future as a qualified therapist.

Our course is continuously developed to reflect contemporary health, education and social care practice. Clients, voluntary groups, other allied health professionals, speech and language therapy clinicians and service managers continue to be involved, in order to ensure that changes in speech and language therapy practice are incorporated, keeping your course up to date.

The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you’ll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You’ll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also. You can find out more about SURG by reading their blog here.

You share some learning experiences with other healthcare students on similar undergraduate courses. The learning includes inter-professional collaboration, especially during placements. Working alongside other health professionals means that you also have the opportunity to gain expert knowledge from them.

The cost of required uniform will be fully covered by the school.

Placement information

Placements are an integral part of this course and are sourced for you from across a variety of settings (e.g.NHS organisations, independent/private SLT services, charities, and Schools) and client groups (e.g. paediatrics, adults, etc). Your placements will vary in length and are linked to the objectives of the modules you are studying. You will have a minimum of 150 clinical experience sessions (approximately 75 days). Placements will have different structures which include face-to-face, virtual, via telehealth. If you have significant experience in a particular field, we may not return you to that setting so you have the opportunity to advance your skillset.

Speech and Language Therapy placements tend to fall Monday-Friday and within office hours (e.g between 8am -6pm). To provide the best opportunities, we use a wide network of placements across the Eastern region, which means you will likely have to travel approximately 90 minutes from campus. We allocate students on placements throughout the entire East of England region (e.g. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) and surrounding areas. Subject to eligibility, you may be able to claim the NHS Learning Support Fund which provides reimbursement of excess travel (i.e. above your regular commute to campus, and inclusive of costs such as hire cars, etc) or accommodation costs incurred due to undertaking practical training on clinical placement. When you start your course, the SLT Placements Team will collect information about your previous work experience, whether you can drive, and other circumstances in order to aid placing you.

DBS and Occupational Health Checks

This course requires a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. Please contact our DBS team or Occupational Health team if you have any questions in relation to these checks.

You will also be required to register for the DBS Update Service (information relating to this service can be found here). You will need to register for this within 30 days of your DBS certificate being issues. The Update Service costs £13 per year, which the University will reimburse. You will need to keep the subscription to this Service active for the duration of your course. If you do not register for the Update Service within 30 days, or your registration lapses, and you later attend placement where this is a requirement, you will have to pay for a new DBS check, which will enable you to sign up to the Update Service. Please contact our DBS team if you have any questions relating to this.

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Further information about how to obtain an Overseas Criminal Record check can be found on the Gov.uk website.

Mandatory Vaccinations

As you may be aware, the UK government has now revoked legislation that requires all health and social care staff working in sites regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Whilst vaccination is not essential, we encourage our applicants and students to be fully vaccinated. Find out more about what this means for applicants to this course.