Aimed at graduates of related subjects, our MSc Sport Rehabilitation offers BASRaT accredited training in orthopaedic sports medicine diagnostics, injury prevention, and recovery. This course offers an exciting array of placement opportunities, trauma management training, master classes and voluntary experience, all delivered by our expert team who will support you to achieve Graduate Sports Rehabilitator status.

Key information

Award:

MSc

Mode of Study:

Part-time

Duration:

2 years

Location:

The University of Bolton

Start date:

20/09/2021

Course Details

Designed to help you get to the top in the field of injury rehabilitation and prevention, our British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRaT) accredited Master’s degree in Sport Rehabilitation focuses on clinical diagnostics, patient management, and the comprehensive rehabilitation of musculoskeletal issues.

Based in Bolton One, the University of Bolton’s specially designed sports and health teaching and research centre, this practically-focused course covers injury diagnostics, specialised early and late stage rehabilitation, trauma management and movement analysis. Practical laboratory and clinical work are essential elements of the course, and we host two commercially-active facilities on campus to support this – our Sports and Spinal Injury Clinic and our Athlete Development Centre. We also work with an extensive network of partners, offering external professional placements with professional sports teams, private clinics, and orthopaedic departments.

Our dedicated team of experienced academic practitioners have worked at all levels of elite and professional sport. We wish to share our expertise and passion to help you gain a high-level of academic and theoretical knowledge (for evidence-based practice), and the professional, vocational, and practical skills needed to be a successful clinician in this exciting and dynamic field of sports healthcare.

Highlights

Graduates of this Sport Rehabilitation Master’s degree will be eligible to join BASRaT, and subsequently use the title of Graduate Sport Rehabilitator (GSR).
You’ll be expected to gain a minimum 400 hours of professional experience before joining BASRaT, giving valuable, hands-on, real-life experience of clinical practice under the mentorship of experienced clinical supervisors. Our extensive network of industry contacts and partners means we can offer a wide variety of placements in sports teams, private clinics, and the Ministry of Defence.
We offer an integrated level two Immediate Care in Sport trauma course, endorsed by the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS), which helps to prepare you for your professional placement module.
You’ll have opportunities to engage with research that influences the Sport Rehabilitation profession and enhances your evidence-based practice.
We offer the opportunity to undertake an academically-credited student exchange and internship in the USA.
Guest speakers in current practice in elite level professional sport with expertise in the orthopaedic, sports and private practice arenas contribute to the course, providing an authentic perspective from experienced professionals to further enhance your learning and employability.

Key Features

Our highly-qualified lecturers are Chartered, State Registered or BASRaT-accredited, have extensive experience in elite full-time sport, are all in clinical practice and are involved in current research.
Specialist facilities in Bolton One include our practitioner-led Sports and Spinal Injuries Clinic, our Athlete Development Centre, hydrotherapy and swimming pools, a rehabilitation suite, a strength and conditioning suite, sport and exercise laboratories focusing on physiology and biomechanics, fully equipped teaching clinics, and much more.
You’ll be encouraged to attend relevant master classes, external courses and voluntary events, such as sports massage for professional teams, to enhance your learning. These help you to make contacts in the industry and contribute to your professional development.
Alongside specialist sport rehabilitation knowledge, you’ll have the chance to further develop your skills in research, data collection and evaluation, critical reasoning and analysis, as well as in areas such as communication, presentation, team working, and problem solving.
We offer a warm and friendly environment for your studies, with relatively small class sizes, specialist sports and clinical teaching facilities, and excellent IT and library services. You’ll also be able to access a great range of recreational sport and exercise facilities for when you need to exercise your body instead of your mind.

Professional recognition

The course is accredited by the British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRaT), the professional body for Graduate Sport Rehabilitators (GSR), who hold an Accredited Professional Register approved by the Professional Standards Authority for Healthcare in the UK. BASRaT provides full professional liability insurance to all graduates, which enables you to practice as a sport rehabilitation professional.

Typically, you’ll have successfully completed an Honours degree (or equivalent) in a relevant subject (e.g. sport rehabilitation, physiotherapy, sports therapy, sport and exercise science, sports coaching, strength and conditioning, or physical education).
Preferably, you’ll also have relevant vocational experience, or be in the process of obtaining some.
If you don’t meet the standard entry requirements but have considerable sector-based expertise, we’ll be happy to consider your application.
We'll consider applications where appropriate work experience can be demonstrated in lieu of, or in addition to, the published academic qualifications in line with the University’s Recognition of Prior Experiential Learning (RPEL) procedures.
You'll be required to attend an interview as part of the application process.
This course involves working unsupervised with children and/or vulnerable young people and adults and you must gain an Enhanced Disclosure certificate from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) before starting your studies. Charges are payable to cover the cost of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure application and annual registration with the online Update Service.
If English isn’t your first language you’ll also need IELTS 6.0 with no less than 5.5 in any band (or equivalent). We also accept a range of other English language qualifications – please visit our English Language Requirements web page for more details.

Want some reassurance or advice? Speak to one of our advisors. Email us at enquiries@bolton.ac.uk or call us on +44 (0)1204 903 903.

Where changes are made to material information contained in this course description or a decision is taken to suspend a course between the offer of admissions and enrolment, we will inform applicants at the earliest possible opportunity and will outline the various options available to the applicant.

With people’s increased awareness of exercise and the need to prevent and manage injury, there’s a growing demand for practitioners specialising in healthcare for the physically active. As a graduate, you’ll understand how to conduct research and apply your findings to the real world. You’ll also have knowledge of a range of topics, including injury prevention and recovery, injury diagnostics, specialised early and late stage rehabilitation, manual therapies, trauma management and movement analysis.

This course develops your subject knowledge and understanding, as well as your cognitive skills such as critical reasoning and analysis, application of sport rehabilitation principles to case scenarios, and how to appropriately interpret research findings.

What can I do with this qualification?

As a graduate of this course, you’ll have the skills and knowledge required to become an autonomous healthcare practitioner, specialising in fitness, exercise-based rehabilitation and musculoskeletal management.

Opportunities exist with professional and non-professional team sports as medical practitioners, elite sport organisations such as British Cycling, the Ministry of Defence as exercise rehabilitation instructors, private clinical practice, personal training, rehabilitation specialists, university education, and injury case-load management.

Our graduates are also able to establish their own consultancy business or progress on to additional study and research including MPhil/PhD degrees.

Alternative career options

Graduates can use the qualification to enter a range of careers including strength and conditioning, teaching, the police, the fire service, the leisure industry and the NHS. Graduates can also use the qualification to enter a range of other careers, and for some of these roles, both relevant experience and/or postgraduate study may be required. Some of these roles include:

Health promotion
Teaching and academia
Outdoor activities/education management
Sport and exercise psychology
Sport therapy
Community rehabilitation
Research and development

Course fees

The fees for a student’s course of study will be set for the normal duration of that course subject only to inflationary increases – measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded in March each year to take effect for subsequent start dates.

The university is currently awaiting government guidelines as to EU fee charges for students commencing study in 2021/2022.

Bursaries

Click here for more information on our 2020 Master's Bursaries.

For details of how to apply for this course, please choose your status from the options below:

You may apply directly to the University using the University's online application form. Please select your chosen start date from the list below:

You should have to hand:

Details of the educational establishments you attended and dates
Your certificates for the qualifications you are using to gain entry to the course – you will need to enter the completion date and upload copies
Details of any employment history including name, address, dates and role
Personal statement – this can be either input into the relevant field or uploaded separately
Details including e-mail addresses of two referees, at least one of which should be someone who can provide an academic reference

Please make sure any documents you wish to upload in support of your application are in pdf or jpeg format. Personal statements may be word documents.

Please ensure your data is correct at each stage of the application before you proceed to the next page. If you use the back button at any time during the application, you should check the validity of the data you have already input.

If you experience difficulties during the application process, contact the Admissions Team on 01204 903394 or admissions@bolton.ac.uk

Apply online: University of Bolton MSc Sport Rehabilitation - 20 September 2021

International applications are not possible for this course

As an international student you are not allowed to study this course because of the restrictions on your visa.

We offer a wide range of full-time courses in lots of different subjects, many of our courses start in September and January. If you would like to see what courses are available please visit our Course Search.

We use a wide variety of learning, teaching and assessment methods. These aim to help you develop the skills, knowledge and competencies you need to achieve the learning outcomes of this course, and more importantly, to be successful in your future career.

You can expect timetabled classes (for instance, tutor-led lectures, workshops, tutorials, seminars, and practical sessions) along with other learning activities that place a larger emphasis on independent, self-directed and self-managed learning. Information surrounding lecture topics, supportive material and recommended reading will largely be made available through the University’s virtual learning environment, Moodle so that you can access it online. You’ll also have access to a personal tutor for individual support.

In addition, we offer sessions with expert guest speakers and masterclasses with key practitioners from the sport rehabilitation community. These seek to enhance employability and bridge the gap between theory and professional practice. Similarly, work experience forms a large part of the course and is designed to help you develop your skills in a clinical environment.

We also use a broad range of assessment methods, including written examinations, practical assessment, coursework, viva, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), case studies, oral presentations, and research projects. Some assessments will contribute to your final module mark and allow you to demonstrate that you’ve met the learning outcomes, while others are designed to help you identify areas that need extra attention on your part, or where you need extra support from your tutors.

Modules

The modules listed below may be a mixture of compulsory and optional. You may not have the opportunity to study all the modules shown as part of the course.

Musculoskeletal Injury Assessment and Management
Physical Literacy, Rehabilitation & Preventative Exercise
Clinical Treatment Skills
Performance, Training, and Special Populations
Professional Practice
Masters Project
Anatomy and Physiology
Scientific Enquiry and Data Analysis

Assessment methods

Level	Assesment method
Level one	Coursework 25%, Practical exams 65%, Written exams 10%

Learning activities

Level	Learning activity
Level one	Guided independent study 46%, Placement/study abroad 25%, Scheduled learning and teaching activities 29%

Disclaimer

The university will use all reasonable endeavours to deliver your course as described in its published material and the programme specification for the academic year in which you begin your course. The university considers changes to courses very carefully and the university will minimise any changes. Please be aware that our courses are subject to review on an ongoing basis and changes may be necessary due to legitimate staffing, financial, regulatory and academic reasons. The content of course modules and mode of associated assessments may be updated on an annual basis. This is to ensure that all modules are up-to-date and responsive to employment and sector needs. The published course material and the programme specification contain indicative ‘optional modules’ that may be subject to change due to circumstances outside of our control. For this reason, we cannot guarantee to run any specific optional module.