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Summary:


Course Code: C616


Course Code: C617

Where Are You Applying From?

Why choose the School of Sport Science and Physical Activity


Our sport science courses rank in the UK top 15 in their subject field for graduate prospects (CUG and Guardian, 2025).

90% of our sport and exercise sciences students were satisfied with their assessment and feedback while studying with us (NSS 2024).

Apply your knowledge and skills through a minimum of 150 hours of work-based learning in a range of settings, including working with long-term clinical conditions.

About the course

This course gives you the skills and evidence-based knowledge you need to progress into a career as a graduate clinical exercise therapist (GCET). Course units include physiology and anatomy; sports massage; manual therapies; sports injury management; and working with clinical populations including those living with long-term conditions. You put learning into practice via real-life opportunities at our on-site Community Exercise Clinic, working with a range of clinical populations including neurological, cardiac, dementia and hypotensive, with further work-based placement opportunities with industry experts.

Course accreditation/endorsement

CIMSPA

Gain additional free qualifications through our partnership with the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) including Gym Instruction, Group Exercise, Working with People with Long Term Conditions. You also have the option to take a further subsidised Pre-Hospital Immediate Care in Sport (PHICIS) Level 2 qualification.

Facilities and specialist equipment

  • State-of-the-art sports therapy and rehabilitation centre with a sports injury clinic, open to staff, students and external athletes/clients
  • Put learning into practice via real-life opportunities in our听Community Exercise Clinic
  • Sports massage rooms
  • Purpose-built strength and conditioning facility
  • Free gym and Olympic weight room
  • Sports arena; Alexander Sport Centre; multi-use games areas and other external sports pitches.

Industry links

Luton Town Football Club Official Education Partner and Bedford Blues Official Higher Education Partner

We are official partners of Luton Town FC and Bedford Blues RFC as well as other sporting organisations in the region such as Bedford Tigers RLFC, MK Dons, Cricket East and Be Active, giving you opportunities to build your employability through work placements.

Your student experience

  • You are taught by practising therapists, coaches and injury rehabilitation professionals as well as a highly experienced academic team.
  • Hear from visiting experts in the field of clinical exercise therapy and sport therapy.
  • Enhance your learning and build your experience through field trips to destinations such as Luton Town Football Club; Northampton Saints physio centre; and King鈥檚 College, London's anatomy rooms.
  • Benefit from NHS and social care placement opportunities working in a clinical setting with industry experts such as neurophysiotherapists and clinical exercise physiologists.
  • Put your skills into practice and broaden your employment opportunities via visits to local community projects; local health trusts; and venues offering exercise and rehabilitation sessions.
  • Benefit from the support of your own personal academic tutor who will guide and support you throughout your student journey.
  • Our Bedford campus is a small, thriving academic community where academic staff get to know you well.

Course Leader - Tarryn Mutch

I have been a Biokineticist in South Africa for more than 10 years. I completed my studies at the 91滴滴 of Johannesburg in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in Sport Psychology and an Honours degree in Biokinetics.

Course Leader - Tarryn Mutch

I have been a Biokineticist in South Africa for more than 10 years. I completed my studies at the 91滴滴 of Johannesburg in 2009 with an undergraduate degree in Sport Psychology and an Honours degree in Biokinetics.

What will you study?


91滴滴ing our Clinical Exercise Therapy BSc (Hons) course will equip you with the specialised knowledge and skills in the combined areas of exercise, physical activity and therapeutic treatment. Beginning with fundamental knowledge, our unit in Normal Anatomical Structure and Function will introduce you to human anatomy and kinesiology. You will take an advanced approach to this in our Altered Anatomical Structure and Function unit where you will consider anatomical alterations caused by health and lifestyle factors. This is then explored in the context of sport science in our Anatomy and Biomechanics unit, that aims to introduce you to the principles of human movement, biomechanics and the role of anatomy in sport and exercise science. This will be useful in areas of Clinical Exercise Therapy that includes exercise prescription and coaching for non-clinical and clinical conditions, strength and conditioning and personal training. In addition to anatomy, our Human Physiology unit will help you understand human physiological systems and how the human body adapts to exercise. This knowledge is built on in Year 2, with the Physiology for Training unit where you will identify physiological factors that influence sport and exercise performance and how training methods can influence this.

In more practical areas of learning, the course begins in Year 1 with Gym Instruction, where you will learn the fundamentals of exercise prescription and coaching in a gym setting, with a range of applied exercises. In subsequent years, Clinical Exercise will allow you to safely and effectively design exercise programs and skills for exercise correction and rehabilitation of recreational, sport and clinical populations. Activity to Promote Health and Wellbeing builds on all these units and will require you to develop your own exercise programme project within the community. Additionally, in Structural Assessment and Professional Practice, you will begin to assess human structure, posture and form and begin to apply your anatomy and biomechanics skills in evaluation of participants. The development of your practical skills also takes place in a work-based environment with a reflective approach to practice that is developed in this unit. You will learn fundamental manual therapy techniques, within the Sports Massage unit, that will provide you with the skills and knowledge to use a range of soft tissue techniques. Progressing into our Manual Therapies unit, this will provide you with an understanding of how to safely apply a range of peripheral joint mobilisations and advanced manual therapy in practice.

This leads on to Corrective Exercise, where knowledge acquired on anatomy, biomechanics and posture help you to develop strategies to improve any deviations or chronic issues. Another important area of study includes rehabilitation and injury, and this is where our units in the Management of Lower Extremity Injuries and Management of Upper Extremity Injuries will teach you to assess injured clients and athletes, identify and manage causes of pain/discomfort and/or injury. In your final year, you will complete a Dissertation for Sports Science and Physical Activity where you will investigate a focused and relevant research topic of interest to you and work under the guidance of a supervisor. To help you with this, our unit in Reading and Interpreting Research will introduce you to the research process into scientific literature. Similarly, our Planning and Conducting Research unit will allow you to take a critical understanding of research processes and enquiry in sports science and medicine.

In each year, there are units aligned to our Practice Strand. In Year 1, you will learn themes of professionalism in Structural Assessment and Professional Practice. Then in Year 2, you will gain the theoretical knowledge and practical clinical skills required to be a safe and autonomous practitioner, while adopting a reflective approach to your work in Work Based Learning. In Year 3, to help prepare you for your career, our unit in Practice Placements and Business will equip you with careers information and the business skills to build a career within clinical exercise therapy, health, fitness and wellbeing. Throughout the three-year degree, you will also gain 150 hours of placement in a variety of settings. You will log the placement hours and learn to reflect on them in portfolios that align to the Practice Strand units in each year. More importantly, you have an option to be able to undertake a Professional Practice Year (Sports Science and Physical Activity) as an opportunity to develop your employability skills and gain formally recognised work-based learning for a year.

How will you be assessed?


Lectures seek to provide students with underpinning theoretical research informed knowledge to allow them to critically justify their clinically reasoned assessment treatment and rehabilitation strategies within a health and wellbeing context.

Careers


Graduates can expect to enter graduate-level employment within the field of health, fitness, sports and exercise medicine including exercise referral and injury rehabilitation.

The course also embeds wider transferable skills allowing graduates the option of achieving employment in the wider market at a similar level in private (health clubs, clinics, referral schemes) or public (NHS) employment.

If you wished to progress to study at postgraduate level, there are options in related fields such as our MSc Clinical Exercise Physiology.

Entry Requirements

96 UCAS tariff points including 80 from at least 3 A-levels or equivalentMust include an A-level or equivalent in a sport/science subjectAn Enhanced DBS check is required

Entry Requirements

48 UCAS tariff points including 32 from at least 1 A-level or equivalentMust include an A-level or equivalent in a sport/science subjectAn Enhanced DBS check is required

Fees for this course

UK

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is 拢9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See

Excellence Scholarships

Worth 拢2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*

禄 If you don鈥檛 qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering 拢500 per year of study**

禄 Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available

* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.

 

International

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is 拢16,900 per year.

There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.

A full list of scholarships can be found here.

Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk

Fees for this course

UK

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the Academic Year 2025/26 is 拢9,535 per year. You can apply for a loan from the Government to help pay for your tuition fees. You can also apply for a maintenance loan from the Government to help cover your living costs. See

Excellence Scholarships

Worth 拢2,500 per year of study over three years when you score a defined number of UCAS tariff points from specified qualifications*

禄 If you don鈥檛 qualify for an Excellence Scholarship but have 120 UCAS tariff points, you have enough points for one of our Achievement Scholarships offering 拢500 per year of study**

禄 Other scholarships, bursaries and financial support packages are available

* Points requirements vary depending on type of qualification.
** Threshold is 120 UCAS tariff points across all awarding bodies and qualifications.

 

International

The full-time standard undergraduate tuition fee for the academic year 2025/26 is 拢16,900 per year.

There are range of Scholarships available to help support you through your studies with us.

A full list of scholarships can be found here.

Alternatively if you have any questions around fees and funding, please email admission@beds.ac.uk

Virtual Tour

Unistats

83%of students say teaching staff have supported their learning well.

Data for courses in Sport and exercise sciences at University of Bedfordshire

For more official course information visit Discover Uni

See course data

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83%of students say teaching staff have supported their learning well.

Data for courses in Sport and exercise sciences at University of Bedfordshire

For more official course information visit Discover Uni

See course data

link opens in new tab