School of Allied Health and Life Sciences

The School of Allied Health and Life Sciences offers you vocationally-relevant, professionally-accredited undergraduate and postgraduate programmes of the highest academic standards in the field of allied health, nutrition, and computer science.

You will be taught in high-quality, specialist teaching facilities by expert staff, who are either research-focused, or specialised practitioners in their field, or both.

We offer and continue to develop an attractive portfolio of research-informed and professionally accredited programmes. You will develop key transferable skills, and experience real-life situations that will equip you to contribute to a modern global society.

Undergraduate programmes

The Nutrition undergraduate programme is accredited by the Association for Nutrition, and graduates have been employed in health and industry settings, and as self-employed nutritionists running their own businesses. We also offer an undergraduate degree in sport and exercise nutrition.

The Sport Rehabilitation undergraduate degree is accredited by the professional body BASRaT. In this course, you will complete a number of placements – which has led to employment with sporting teams and organisations as well as in private clinics for previous graduates.

Providing links with local doctors and physiotherapists, our undergraduate physiotherapy degree is accredited by the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Learn from a team of dedicated lecturers with strong clinical experience and begin your career caring for others.

The Computer Science undergraduate suite of programmes enables you to specialise in different areas within the subject. We offer a range of facilities exposing students to state of the art technology. We also provide links with industry enhancing employment possibilities on graduation.

Postgraduate programmes

We encourage graduates to study on one of our group of postgraduate degrees, whether it is the ground-breaking MSc in Nutrition and Genetics – the only course of its kind in Europe looking into links between our DNA and health – or the MSc in Chronic Disease Management. There is a clear need and demand for a course to supply the future workforce needed to look after our ageing population.

Our innovative MSc Applied Sports Nutrition, which is mostly delivered over weekends, allows those with sport and nutritional backgrounds to become practitioners in this exciting field, and advise anyone – from the recreational weekend warrior to the Olympic athlete.

Our MSc Sport Rehabilitation (pre-registration) programme also takes an innovative approach to its delivery. Face-to-face sessions maximise the learning of clinical skills, and online materials provide a variety of support for theoretical learning while enabling flexibility around your work commitments.

We offer a very popular MSc in Physiotherapy (pre-registration). This programme is as a result of St Mary’s acting as a ‘first mover’ into the open market that the removal of NHS bursaries in this field created. These clinical programmes remain highly regulated and we have invested in specialist staff to deliver this programme where the demand for practitioners remains high. 

Our MSc in Public Health is available face to face with a flexible approach to delivery. The degree covers a broad range of public health-related topics, and provides key competencies in leadership and management, which are highly valued in the ever-changing healthcare sector.

It is taught by academics involved in national and international research activities, ranging from collaborations with WHO to key public Health stakeholders such as NHS and the Office of the National Statistics.

Our MSc Computer Science programme is considered a conversion course for those with minimal knowledge and experience in the field. You will gain the key skills to enable you to work in different fields within Computer Science, while working with key industry leaders.