How our placements work

The primary aim of our placements is to give students the opportunity to learn from experienced clinicians, get hands-on experience of a diverse range of physiotherapy settings and to work with different professionals and client groups. Thank you very much for being part of this essential learning experience.

All of our placements are marked as a pass/fail. However, we ask you to provide grades in the marking booklet at the halfway and final assessments to give students a clear idea of their areas of strength and what they need to work on. Each of our five placements has a specific area for the student to focus on, such as Communication, or MDT working. The focus areas are not designed to change your normal placement provision, they are more for the student to be considering how they can particularly develop. Each student has to submit a reflection to their university tutor at the end of each placement, focussing on the specific topic.

For students who started their degree prior to January 2025 the pass mark is 40%.

For students starting their degree from January 2025 the pass mark is 50%. 

Please get in touch if you have any questions or are unsure about a student's pass mark.

Our students are expected to work full time whilst on placement (approximately 37.5 hours per week). Exact working patterns can vary according to the service need. Please discuss this with your student to create a working schedule which works for both of you. Please contact the university if you have any questions.

We encourage you to meet with the student formally at the start of placement, halfway through the placement (where formal feedback is provided) and at the end of the placement (where final placement mark is provided). You may wish to meet with the student formally more frequently than this.

A visiting tutor will visit you and the student halfway through the placement. We plan to carry out online visits, but face to face visits can be planned if this is more appropriate. If everything is going well the tutor may not contact you further, but you are always welcome to contact them if you wish. If you have concerns about a student or you think that they are at risk of failing the placement, please contact the university as soon as possible so that we can support you. It may be appropriate for a tutor to visit the placement or to offer additional support. If a student is at risk of failing the placement we aim to provide feedback and support so that they can improve if possible.

If, at any point in the placement, you feel that a student has acted in a way which is incompetent or inappropriate and harm has been caused, you can fail the student immediately and they will leave the placement at that point. Please contact the university as soon as possible in this situation. Students are able to retake a maximum of one placement. If a student has acted in an incompetent or inappropriate way and no harm has been caused it may be that the incident can be used as a learning experience and the student can work to improve. If you would like support with difficult incidents involving our students, please do not hesitate to contact the university.