Post-lockdown students who win a place on the University of Sunderland’s Sports and Rehabilitation Therapy programme will get to access new multimillion pound facilities.
The state-of-the-art makeover at the University’s Sciences’ Complex means that in the future students enrolling on the programme will be using cutting edge rehabilitation-based equipment to help them progress in their studies.
The course has been designed to offer students with a particular interest in muscularskeletal rehabilitation the opportunity to get industry-recognised qualifications (such as sports massage) while studying a British Association of Sport Rehabilitators and Trainers (BASRaT) accredited degree programme.
The new programme further cements the University’s offer of 360-degree health and wellbeing courses, ranging from Medicine to Pharmacy, Nursing to Paramedic Science, Sports and Exercise Sciences to Physiotherapy, and Occupational Therapy.
Dr Bob Hogg, Senior Lecturer in Biomechanics and Performance Analysis and Leader of the new programme, said: “The three-year programme will offer students a minimum of 400-hours of work placements which will be critical in preparing them for future employment.
“We will offer the students the ability to gain industry recognised qualifications in the sports and rehabilitation therapy field during each year of their programme.
“There is more and more need for this type of qualification, as many health professionals are now referring patients to specialist manual therapists.”
The programme will see students sharing five modules alongside those undertaking a Physiotherapy degree showing the close relationship between these two professions.
Dr Hogg added: “We also prepare them for differing aspects of life in the working world.
“For example, many sports rehabilitation therapists are self-employed, so we have recognised this and developed modules which teach students about preparing a business plan while working with the Enterprise Place which can help them access funding to make their dream a reality.”