Osteopathy MOst

UCO School of Osteopathy (formerly University College of Osteopathy)

This full-time undergraduate programme equips students with the underpinning knowledge, hands-on experience and multidisciplinary teamwork needed to be a competent osteopath, and will enable graduating students to apply to the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) for registration and begin professional practice.

Over the duration of the course you will spend extensive time in the UCO Clinic in accordance with GOsC and Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) requirements. This will include opportunities to work with particular patient groups through our specialist and community clinics. Clinical education starts from the first year with observation of osteopathic practice, and as your knowledge and skills develop you will have increasing responsibility for the decision making and treatment before you manage your own patients in the final two years. You will be supported by experienced clinical faculty members who are all practising osteopaths.

You will also have the opportunity to develop a variety of skills that will be needed as a fully-qualified osteopath working in primary health care, including the ability critically to assess research, journal papers, lectures and presentations to inform the best possible care for your patients.

• Interaction with patients in a clinical setting begins in the first year.
• Clinical training delivered via the UCO's teaching clinic, with no need to arrange external placements.
• Students will have access to a wide range of patients from diverse backgrounds and demographics.
• Students will also have the opportunity to work in our specialist and community clinics treating specific patient groups, currently including NHS patients and people living with HIV. This provides a broader level of clinical experience and also introduces students to potential areas of future specialism.
• Students are taught and supervised by experienced, qualified professionals with a range of specialist knowledge and expertise. Tutor/student ratios are kept low - typically one tutor to 12 students in practical classes in the early years and one tutor to 15 at Level 7, as well as one tutor to every four treating students in clinic.
• The M.Ost provides the foundations for setting up a practice, covering business skills, medico-legal issues, marketing and financial information, and in our most newly developed element of the course, will introduce you to the professional, collaborative requirements of working as an Allied Health Professional (AHP) and as part of the wider group of healthcare practitioners in the UK and abroad.
• The course strongly supports evidence-informed practice and the academic and clinical content of the course are underpinned by scholarship and research undertaken at the UCO.
• Students have access to a growing range of online learning resources including Anatomy TV.

Careers & employability

• Graduates may progress on to further study at postgraduate level at the UCO or other educational institutions. The UCO currently offers a range of postgraduate certificates designed to support graduate development and career specialisation.
• The majority of graduates go on to register with GOsC and work as self employed osteopaths. However there are also opportunities to within multidisciplinary environments, bigger healthcare practices and the NHS.
• Graduates may also wish to pursue areas of specialism, working with specific client groups such as children, sports people or animals.
• With further experience graduates may also move into osteopathic education or research.