Speech & Language Therapy

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Start date: September 2024

Deadlines for on-time applications

2024 entry application deadlines

For courses starting in 2024 (and for deferred applications), your application should be with us at UCAS by one of these dates – depending on what courses you apply for. If your completed application – including all your personal details and your academic reference – is submitted by the deadline, it is guaranteed to be considered.

16 October 2023 for 2024 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – any course at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or for most courses in medicine, veterinary medicine/science, and dentistry. You can add choices with a different deadline later, but don’t forget you can only have five choices in total.

31 January 2024 for 2024 entry at 18:00 (UK time) – for the majority of courses.

Some course providers require additional admissions tests to be taken alongside the UCAS application, and these may have a deadline. Find out more about these tests at https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/applying-university/admissions-tests

Check course information in the search tool to see which deadline applies to you at the application weblink below.

Apply as soon as possible: Student funding arrangements mean that as offers are made and places fill up, some courses may only have vacancies for students from certain locations. It’s therefore really important that you apply for your chosen courses by the appropriate deadlines mentioned above, as not all courses will have places for all students.

All applications received after 30 June are entered into Clearing - find out more about Clearing at https://www.ucas.com/undergraduate/clearing-and-results-day/what-clearing

Overview
The highly competent graduates from this course are passionate about their profession and compassionate to their clients and their families.

Summary
This course aims to produce highly competent, passionate, compassionate speech and language therapists who practise safely and effectively. You will gain knowledge and understanding of communication and eating, drinking and swallowing problems and how these problems impact on your client's ability to live a full live, as well as affect their family. You will learn how to assess such problems and how to work with the person to improve or maintain their communication and eating, drinking and swallowing abilities, with the intent to improve their ability to engage fully in their life.

You will be supported to develop skills of team working, clinical reflection and presentation skills during the in-house university modules as well as when out on placement. You will also develop your research skills in order to ensure that your management of people with a communication problem is current and based on good evidence.

You will experience a fully co-ordinated three year course where all aspects of theory and practical experience are carefully integrated together. Your assessments will also develop your ability to integrate theory with practice as a speech and language therapist. This will happen in well-supported, logical steps across the three years.

You will be facilitated in your learning by a welcoming, collegiate community of speech and language academics and your peers in class. In addition, you will learn in an academic department (School of Health Sciences) with other health professional students which helps prepare you fully for working in an inter-professional manner.

About
The programme meets the needs of those who wish to gain a professional qualification in speech and language therapy together with a good foundation for postgraduate study, involvement in research, and continuing professional development. This programme is recognised by the Professional and Statutory bodies for speech and language therapists (SLTs) in the United Kingdom.

Graduates are eligible to apply for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). HCPC is the statutory body which regulates the profession and allows graduates to practise as an SLT in the UK. Graduates are also eligible for full membership of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT).

There is a strong focus on the application of current theory and evidence to the development of practitioners with good clinical skills. Graduates are fit for purpose to work with people of all ages with communication and eating, drinking, swallowing challenges and are able to use and contribute to research in the area of speech, language and communication. Practice placements are therefore an integral part of the programme and are enhanced by a range of University-based and placement-based support and learning opportunities.

There is also a distinct eating/drinking/swallowing strand through this programme. Graduates will have completed a minimum of 100 SLT-supervised clinical hours across the three years in predominantly eating/drinking/swallowing placements. This is in addition to 480 plus SLT-supervised clinical hours in a range of child and adult settings where Speech and Language Therapists work.

The SLT students are taught by a range of experts, and at the core, there is a specialist team of six highly qualified SLTs.

Here is a guide to the subjects studied on this course.

Courses are continually reviewed to take advantage of new teaching approaches and developments in research, industry and the professions. Please be aware that modules may change for your year of entry. The exact modules available and their order may vary depending on course updates, staff availability, timetabling and student demand. Please contact the course team for the most up to date module list.

Year 1
Knowledge and Skills for Personal & Professional Development
Biological Sciences
Developmental Clinical Linguistics
Neurodevelopmental Conditions
Linguistics for Speech and Language Therapists
Developmental Foundations
Professional Practice 1

Year 2
Health Science Research
Neuroscience
Enhancing Participation: Acquired Neurology 1
Vocal Health
Advanced Clinical Linguistics
A Focus on Fluency
Enhancing Participation: Acquired Neurology 2
Professional Practice 2

Year 3
Research Project
Advanced Management: Adult
Advanced Management: Infants, Children and Young People
Professional Practice 3
Professional Practice 4
Professional Development & Employability

Assessment methods vary and are defined explicitly in each module. Assessment can be a combination of examination and coursework but may also be only one of these methods. Assessment is designed to assess your achievement of the module’s stated learning outcomes. You can expect to receive timely feedback on all coursework assessments. This feedback may be issued individually and/or issued to the group and you will be encouraged to act on this feedback for your own development.

Coursework can take many forms, for example: essay, report, seminar paper, test, presentation, dissertation, design, artefacts, portfolio, journal, group work. The precise form and combination of assessment will depend on the course you apply for and the module. Details will be made available in advance through induction, the course handbook, the module specification, the assessment timetable and the assessment brief. The details are subject to change from year to year for quality or enhancement reasons. You will be consulted about any significant changes.

Normally, a module will have 4 learning outcomes, and no more than 2 items of assessment. An item of assessment can comprise more than one task. The notional workload and the equivalence across types of assessment is standardised. The module pass mark for undergraduate courses is 40%. The module pass mark for postgraduate courses is 50%.

Professional recognition
Health and Care Professions Council, the (HCPC)
Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for the purpose of providing eligibility to apply for registration with the HCPC as a speech and language therapist.

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT)
Recognised by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) for the purpose of applying for newly qualified practitioner membership.

Work placement / study abroad
Clinical placements are an integral part of the development of a speech and language therapist. The clinical experience on this course is designed around your academic preparation for that placement. So, in Year 1, your focus is on children and young people, and you are therefore out in late Spring on a child and young persons' SLT-placement. You are on placement for a 'block period' of four days a week for six weeks.

In Year 2, your focus is on adults and acquired communication and eating, drinking and swallowing problems. You are on placement in late Spring on an acquired neurological and adult learning difficulties persons' SLT-placements, for a 'block period' of four days a week for six weeks.

In Year 3, you have a focus on adult clients in Semester 1 for six weeks followed by an adult-orientated SLT-placement for six weeks, four days a week. You then focus on children and young people in Semester 2 for six weeks, followed by a children and young persons' SLT-placement for six weeks, four days a week.

It is useful to note that all of these placements are run in partnership with Northern Ireland Health Trusts' SLT services. All of the above are SLT-supervised clinical placements where your clinical placement educators have had the opportunity to be trained in your learning needs and our goals of the placement.

Although all placements are in Northern Ireland, in order that you can experience a broad range of settings and clients, you may need to travel a distance to placement or reside locally to that placement. This may incur additional personal expense.

Ulster University,
Northland Rd,
Londonderry
BT48 7JL
T: 02870 123 456