bsc (hons) sports therapy

sarah: so our undergraduate courses are accredited degrees by the sports therapy organization and british association of sport rehabilitation and athletic trainers. both of the programs are very similar in terms of their context. we try and engage a really practical aspect to it. so we try and get the students involved from year one with sports massage, with soft tissue techniques. we encourage them then to be looking at placement opportunities and we've got a massive array of different placements, organized placements with professional teams with recreational athletes. we've got a fully operational sports injury clinic in sports centre as well. so it gives them that real exposure to the public as well as supporting that with the theory behind the independence.

helena: i chose marjon because the facilities for this course are second to none. also, from a sports point of view, the facilities onsite are really incredible. not a lot of universities offer so many facilities on campus as well. and i liked the size of the uni. we've been offered loads of placements this year as first years, which is amazing. it allows you to, it teaches you things that you can't learn in the clinic. it's like really important, especially for your employability outside, because you can be really good at academic work, but if you want to work or succeed in this course, or even in this career, you need to have really good experience treating people, different pathologies, different populations. so it's really important to get that hands on practice with people. the great thing about this uni is that whatever year you're in, you're always meeting people. also, they have so many student nights for people, so the social life is really good. and you're just with, it's like a family. i think that's one thing that marjon really has just due to the size of the campus. everyone knows everyone and it's just really good fun. you make some really good friends.

laura: for me from where i'm from, i'm from more of the countryside, the smaller areas. i'm not used to big cities. so being on a campus this size, and it's really lovely, you get to know everyone. i've already gotten to know people from the years above me on the same course. everyone is so lovely. it just felt right. and due to it being a sports uni, i love my sport too much. i've played lacrosse, basketball, hockey, badminton, everything i could try. and with all the facilities on site and makes it so much more easier.

rebecca: i would definitely say come and study at marjon. it's probably been one of the best decisions that i've made. i really enjoy it here. you know, all the lecturers are all really helpful. so there's like a lot of support sort of academically. and then you've got, you know, student support and things that side where they help with like financial problems or, you know, problems at home or anything that might be happening off campus. so, yeah. so, if anyone's kind of debating between marjon and on a different university, i would definitely say for the personal touch, come here.

mike: so, basically, we deal with kind of musculoskeletal injuries, so that's muscles and bones. so, similar principle to physiotherapy, except that we're more the musculoskeletal side of it. so, we deal with all kinds of sports injuries and kind of generic injuries, disc herniations, spinal disorders, your hamstring strains, your acl, so kind of a wide range of different kind of sporting injuries and generic kind of health related pathologies.

so, i was studying down at truro college, which was a partnership through plymouth university, and i was doing a foundation in sports rehabilitation. the small kind of class sizes kind of benefited me as well. the quality of teaching certainly kind of swayed me to come into marjon to continue kind of my studies. think i've bridged a lot of gaps that i felt like i needed to and learned certainly a hell of a lot in a year. although it's just been a year being a top-up student, it's definitely kind of benefited me, no end. a few areas i feel really pleased with, i've kind of bridged and expanded my knowledge and certainly got a lot more practice in the therapy clinic that we got here. i've managed to get quite a few hours in here, and you regularly find me in here a week.

we've got a contract at the moment with the plymouth raiders, so i work quite extensively with one individual player doing some one-on-one rehab. we had a placement module on this degree program, which mine was with the women's football team here. so, i just provide pitch side assistance and come in here, bring some of the girls in for clinic, and just kind of rehab them and get them back to playing, or manage any ongoing issues that they had. it was kind of like a half clinic based and half a pitch side/slight immediate first aid, but i found my results yesterday. i got first, so i was actually ecstatic for that. so yeah, i was absolutely over the moon to get that. i did. i just, i didn't think i was going to get a first, so i was absolutely ecstatic.

i'd like to kind of consolidate. so, at the minute, i've got a couple of jobs, so i work in the internship throughout the summer here, and then i have a pitch side job as well, which is with a local football team. so, like i do, i'm included in much a similar capacity that i was with the women's football team here. so, again, it's a bit of continuity, but i think i would like to consolidate kind of what i've learned from my foundation degree and get some more practice in because you can never say you've made it, really. i think it's always ... there's always, in our vocation, kind of room for improvement. there's always something you can be better at, even if it's just social interaction with clients or perhaps manual therapy techniques or keeping up to date with current trends.

saul: well, there's a huge amount going on in health sciences at the moment. we've had a number of programs, both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. not only have we got really strong academic credibility of our programs, but also we really work very hard with them on our networks, so that they can get good employability opportunities, good placement opportunities. all our courses are accredited so they're recognized by the professional bodies, which really does help our students stand out to combine those three components.

onsite at the university, we have a number of programs that offer service delivery. we have patients in the nhs, which our students help support to rehabilitate and really improve the quality of their life. it's quite an exciting opportunity for us to use to join us at the moment. what really makes us quite a specialist and distinguishing feature is we've got fabulous sport and exercise science that [house 00:00:56] science laboratories here on site so our students get an opportunity to work from year one, get competent in the practical skills that are required to then go out and do the job that they're training for.

nathalie: i chose the course because it was quite broad in the first year, but then you could choose different pathways to specialize in different areas. you can do teaching, you can work with patients, you can go into sports development, that kind of thing, all through the same course. i really liked that aspect of it. it's a lot smaller of a university so the teaching is better, and i think the contact time that you get with your teachers is a lot more than other universities. you're not just a number. they know you by name and they know your situation so they can help out a lot more.

chelsea: the main reason i chose marjon mostly because of the facilities. i saw a couple of other universities, but although marjon's quite small, it stood out above all the rest because there's the number of students, with the facilities, there's never a time where you're going to be waiting to use any of the equipment. it's never going to be a time where you have to put your dissertation on hold because someone else is using that. the equipment and the facilities and everything in general was really good here.

ryan: now we deliver innovative workplace health and wellbeing solutions to businesses so large corporates, including wrigley, including city bus in plymouth. we support their employees with health and wellbeing with our expertise in the industry gained through experiences at marjon. the tight-knit community at marjon and experience that the guys have, the lecturers, they're very experienced in health and fitness and sports science. they're passionate about it as well and they're always conducting new research so it's great to be involved in.

the sport and health clinic has a number of treatment beds and an active rehabilitation area. there is a reception and waiting area for clients too.

the rehab area is well equipped with equipment used to prevent injury and return you to fitness, including weights, medicine balls, steps, bands, foam rollers, exercise balls, mats and wobble cushions.

the game ready system is used to reduce swelling and pain and to increase range of motion, applying ice and compression to areas of the body.

a range of electrotherapy modalities are available including therapeutic, diagnostic ultrasound and tens machines. these are used to diagnose and treat many different injures.

all first-time clients have a thorough consultation and assessment discussion with a therapist to establish an accurate diagnosis, from which they devise the best course of treatment.