Occupational Therapy (Honours)

University of Queensland

About

Occupational Therapists help people affected by injury or illness, psychological or emotional difficulties, developmental delays or ageing to overcome barriers that affect their ability to engage in the everyday activities that are meaningful and important to them.

Occupational Therapists use a range of treatment strategies such as modifying the task or environment, skill development, and/or education to develop, recover or maintain the daily living and working skills of the people they help.

Study the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours) at UQ and you will join one of the leading schools for health and rehabilitation sciences in Australia.

You will have access to a six bed mock ward and learn within a school with a long tradition of teaching, research and graduate excellence.

Upon graduation, you will be confident and job ready knowing that you have a highly respected honours qualification, with knowledge and skills that will set you apart in a competitive job market and a pathway to future research or learning.

Structure

Through this program, you will gain a thorough understanding of the theory and practice of occupational therapy, including foundation knowledge from the anatomical, physiological, social behavioural, and psychological sciences. The first year of this program combines studies in theoretical and practical occupational therapy, with biological and behavioural sciences. You will gain practical experience in a variety of community and healthcare settings, in on-site and external partners throughout Queensland. In second year, you will develop knowledge gained in year 1 and apply theory to practical scenarios related to occupational therapy. Third-year integrates information from the first and second year with research knowledge to work with complex clinical cases and prepares you for full time supervised clinical practice placements in semester two. The final year extends the practice education experience, examines professional issues, and continues your skill development in evidence based practice.

Courses

See the course list for courses that can be studied as part of the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours).

Click on the course code to view the Course Profile, for further information including advice of courses with shared teaching activities.

Placement courses

You will undertake supervised clinical practice in a range of clinical settings that includes hospitals, educational facilities, other health care organisations, private practices and UQ's internal clinics. During your placements, you will have the opportunity to apply your theoretical knowledge acquired through coursework and research to practice and develop your clinical skills in real life settings. You will undertake a variety of sessional practical experiences from year one before commencing full time block placements during years three and four. Clinical placements may be outside of the Brisbane metropolitan area where you will be required to fund your travel, accommodation and daily living expenses. This program has pre-placement requirements which must be met prior to commencement of the program or a placement course. Further details can be found on the Placement Ready website.

Research component

From year one, all students learn to be consumers, collaborators and generators of occupational-related research, completing courses covering general research principles, statistics, health sciences research and research projects. Students integrate this into an evidence-based practice approach to clinical practice spanning from information literacy to knowledge translation.

In years three and four all students develop an in-depth understanding of statistics and research techniques. Students also have the opportunity to undertake a research project in their fourth year.

Honours

Honours will be awarded to all graduates of this program.

Study options

Graduates will have the opportunity to progress to the following programs:

  • Master of Philosophy
  • Doctor of Philosophy

Entry requirements

To complete the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours)

To fulfil the requirements of the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy (Honours), a student must complete the requisite number of courses chosen from the course list in accordance with the Program Rules.

For more information on program requirements, please contact the Faculty.

Students should be aware of the University of Queensland policies and rules which govern the conduct of UQ programs. These may be found on the UQ policies and rules page on the my.UQ website.

Institution