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Course Overview

Sports therapy is a dynamic field and therapists are a crucial part of musculoskeletal healthcare as well as in medical teams at many sports clubs, working alongside physios, sports medicine doctors, and sports scientists.

BSc (Hons) Sport and Exercise Therapy at Lincoln provides an academic degree alongside a vocational qualification, offering you the chance to develop the skills needed to work within the sports therapy industry.

You can learn how to apply sports science knowledge and principles to the assessment and treatment of injuries within a sporting context. As well as focusing on the theory and practice of sports therapy, you'll have the chance to develop your understanding of anatomy and physiology, biomechanics, and health-related fitness.

The degree has been developed in response to the increasing role that sports therapy can play in improving health. Upon successful completion, you'll be able to assess athletes with a wide variety of musculoskeletal sports injuries, understand the application of sports therapy treatments, and implement rehabilitation and injury prevention programmes.

The course has been developed in collaboration with The Society of Sports Therapists, an accrediting regulatory body for sports therapy programmes.

Why Choose Lincoln

Accredited by The Society of Sports Therapists

Gain experience in the sports massage clinic

Partnered with Lincoln City FC and a range of external partners

Learn from our expert academic team members

Subject area ranked 3rd overall in the UK*

Subject area ranked top 20 overall in the UK**

*Complete University Guide 2025 (out of 56 ranking institutions) **Guardian University Guide 2026 (out of 85 ranking institutions)

Sports therapy students undertaking practical work.

How You Study

The degree reflects current research informed teaching and innovation within the sector. Academic staff have a range of professional experience, from working clinically to sports therapy roles within professional sports teams.

The first year is designed to provide a solid knowledge-base, introducing sports therapy alongside sports science theory and concepts such as anatomy and physiology. Second year teaching builds on skills in sports therapy and provides the opportunity to convert theoretical sport science knowledge into practice. In the third year, the course combines core and optional modules, which aim to develop understanding of advanced sport therapy treatments while allowing students to focus on the topics that are of most interest to them.

Across the three years of study students will experience a wide range of delivery methods including lectures, seminars, practical labs and clinic work.

Accredited Programme

This course has been developed in collaboration with The Society of Sports Therapists, an accrediting regulatory body for sports therapy programmes.

SST logo

Modules

Module Overview

This module aims to continue to develop core practical and clinical skills required to work as a sports therapist. These skills will allow the student to work safely and effectively with an injured individual providing initial assessment and treatment to a range of common peripheral limb sporting injuries. These skills will be developed through teaching of key theory relating to pathology, assessment and treatment of upper and lower limb injuries along with clinical practice in a supervised environment.

Module Overview

This module provides the student with the appropriate skills and knowledge to design and implement exercise rehabilitation programmes for a variety of sports injuries. Students can develop their critical evaluation skills by exploring the evidence that underpins exercise rehabilitation. The ability to appropriately progress or regress exercise programmes based on evidence-based objective measures will be explored and they will develop an understanding of the role of the multi-disciplinary team in long term rehabilitation.

† Some courses may offer optional modules. The availability of optional modules may vary from year to year and will be subject to minimum student numbers being achieved. This means that the availability of specific optional modules cannot be guaranteed. Optional module selection may also be affected by staff availability.

What You Need to Know

We want you to have all the information you need to make an informed decision on where and what you want to study. In addition to the information provided on this course page, our What You Need to Know page offers explanations on key topics including programme validation/revalidation, additional costs, and contact hours.

Extra Awards

Based on optional modules selected and the grades achieved within these modules, sport and exercise therapy students can opt to undertake additional optional awards in Gym Instruction and Personal Training that are industry-recognised by CIMSPA (additional fee associated) further expanding career path options.

Placements

In order to comply with the requirements of The Society of Sports Therapists, students will be required to accumulate 200 hours of supervised clinical placements in a variety of settings. Students are primarily responsible for finding a placement and covering costs associated such as travel, whilst academics may be able to support the process of acquiring a placement. Checks will be conducted prior to placement commencement to ensure the suitability of the placement to the needs of the student and suitability to the scope of practice of a sports therapist.

Clinical Experience

You can gain practical experience of providing exercise therapy in a real-world, professional setting by taking part in the University of Lincoln Sports Massage Clinic in the second year. The clinic provides University staff and students access to massage treatments for pre- and post-sport performance, post-injury recovery, or general maintenance of physical and mental wellbeing.

In the third year you can take part in the Sports Injury Clinic which allows staff and students to access musculoskeletal injury assessment, advice, treatment, and rehabilitation for a range of injuries.

Both clinics operate under supervision of a qualified practitioner and the clinical experience contributes to the placement hours required on the course

Partnered with Lincoln City Football Club

Our ongoing partnership with Lincoln City FC offers you opportunities to undertake work placement or internship opportunities, as well as providing a potential pathway for full-time employment after you graduate. Many Lincoln graduates are employed within the organisation in roles spanning coaching, physiotherapy, sports science, and performance analysis.

Lincoln City Football Club logo

How you are assessed

Assessment methods used on this course include written examinations, multiple choice examinations, written assignments, lab reports, presentations, practical assessments, and short-format assessments.

What Can I Do with a Sport and Exercise Therapy Degree?

Graduate roles might include working as self-employed sports therapists or within professional sports clubs or private practice. Further opportunities may exist in the health and sport sectors or through research careers.

Entry Requirements 2026-27

United Kingdom

96 to 104 UCAS Tariff points.

This must be achieved from a minimum of 2 A Levels or equivalent Level 3 qualifications. For example:

A Level: CCC to BCC

BTEC Extended Diploma: Distinction Merit Merit

T Level: Merit Overall

Access to Higher Education Diploma: 96 to 104 UCAS points to be achieved from 45 Level 3 credits.

International Baccalaureate: 28 points overall.

GCSE's: Minimum of three at grade 4 or above, which must include English, Maths and Science . Equivalent Level 2 qualifications may be considered.

The University accepts a wide range of qualifications as the basis for entry and do accept a combination of qualifications which may include A Levels, BTECs, Extended Project Qualification (EPQ).

We may also consider applicants with extensive and relevant work experience and will give special individual consideration to those who do not meet the standard entry qualifications.

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Additional requirements:

- Satisfactory completion of an Enhanced Disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).


When you choose Sport and Exercise Therapy in your UCAS application, you will be asked an additional question regarding criminal convictions. Here you must declare all spent and unspent criminal convictions including (but not limited to) cautions, reprimands, final warnings, bind over orders or similar and details of any minor offences, fixed penalty notices, penalty notices for disorder, ASBOs or VOOs.

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Non UK Qualifications:

If you have studied outside of the UK, and are unsure whether your qualification meets the above requirements, please visit our country pages

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/internationalstudents/entryrequirementsandyourcountry/ for information on equivalent qualifications.

EU and Overseas students will be required to demonstrate English language proficiency equivalent to IELTS 6.0 overall, with a minimum of 5.5 in each element. For information regarding other English language qualifications we accept, please visit the English Requirements page

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/internationalstudents/englishlanguagerequirementsandsupport/englishlanguagerequirements/

If you do not meet the above IELTS requirements, you may be able to take part in one of our Pre-sessional English and Academic Study Skills courses.

https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/internationalstudents/englishlanguagerequirementsandsupport/pre-sessionalenglishandacademicstudyskills/

International


If you would like further information about entry requirements, or would like to discuss whether the qualifications you are currently studying are acceptable, please contact the Admissions team on 01522 886097, or email admissions@lincoln.ac.uk

Please note application assessment criteria may vary by country and we may close to applications from some domiciles. Please view the Your Country pages of our website before making an application.

Contextual Offers

At Lincoln, we recognise that not everybody has had the same advice and support to help them get to higher education. Contextual offers are one of the ways we remove the barriers to higher education, ensuring that we have fair access for all students regardless of background and personal experiences. For more information, including eligibility criteria, visit our Offer Guide pages. If you are applying to a course that has any subject specific requirements, these will still need to be achieved as part of the standard entry criteria.

Fees and Scholarships

Going to university is a life-changing step and it's important to understand the costs involved and the funding options available before you start. A full breakdown of the fees associated with this programme can be found on our course fees pages.

Course Fees

For eligible undergraduate students going to university for the first time, scholarships and bursaries are available to help cover costs. To help support students from outside of the UK, we are also delighted to offer a number of international scholarships which range from £1,000 up to the value of 50 per cent of tuition fees. For full details and information about eligibility, visit our scholarships and bursaries pages.

Find out More by Visiting Us

The best way to find out what it is really like to live and learn at Lincoln is to visit us in person. We offer a range of opportunities across the year to help you to get a real feel for what it might be like to study here.

Three students walking together on campus in the sunshine

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