Professional Development in Health and Social Care Top Up

BSc (Hons)

UCAS code: L517

Start dates: September 2025 / September 2026

Full time: 1 year

Part time: 2 years

Location: Headington, Distance learning

School(s): School of Psychology, Social Work and Public Health

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Overview

Have experience working in health and social care? Driven to fix issues in your workplace? Wonder what you could change by taking the lead? Join us to learn how to look at the evidence about health, make plans to transform care and progress in your career.

We’ve designed this top-up degree for students working in health, allied health or social care. Build on your diploma or foundation degree qualification and achieve a full honours degree, boosting your employability and providing new opportunities.

This is a distance learning course, meaning you can complete it from anywhere in the world. Our international team is here to support you, whatever time zone you’re in.

Research is an important part of this course. What we teach is inspired by what our academics are working on. You’ll be taught by experts in public health, nursing, leadership, allied health and evidence-based practice.

We challenge you to link your studies to your professional practice through work-based learning. However, if you’re not currently working, we’d still love to talk to you about studying with us.

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Why Oxford Brookes University?

  • Flexibility
    Return to education without leaving your current role with distance learning. This course is for professionals working in health, allied health or social care.
  • Global
    We've designed this course for professionals anywhere in the world. Don’t worry if English isn’t your first language, we have the support you need to succeed.
  • Learn from leaders
    95% of our research is of internationally recognised standard (Research Excellence Framework 2014).
  • Create change
    Because of the nature of this course, you’ll be able to apply what you learn to your workplace straight away to improve care and the way your team works together.
  • Research skills
    Not only is our teaching inspired by our research, but you’ll learn how to carry out projects, collect data and complete your own analysis.

Course details

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Study modules

Teaching for this course takes place  Face to Face and you can expect around 10 hours of contact time per week.
In addition to this, you should also anticipate a workload of 1,200 hours per year. Teaching usually takes place Monday to Friday, between 9.00am and 6.00pm.

Contact hours involve activities such as lectures, seminars, practicals, assessments, and academic advising sessions. These hours differ by year of study and typically increase significantly during placements or other types of work-based learning.

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Please note: As our courses are reviewed regularly as part of our quality assurance framework, the modules you can choose from may vary from those shown here. The structure of the course may also mean some modules are not available to you.

Careers

This course is your chance to engage, reflect and apply new learning to transform care. Your degree will show your motivation and commitment to further development, making you the perfect match for senior roles or for a career in a related field.

By the end of the course, you’ll be armed with the tools to take the lead and feel like you can reach your potential as a health and social care professional. You’ll also have the know-how to develop yourself and others around you.

Eager to continue your studies after the course? A university degree from Oxford Brookes can also be a gateway to postgraduate study which is prized in many health and social care organisations globally.

Entry requirements

How to apply

Application process

Apply through our application portal.

Apply direct to the University

Tuition fees

Please see the fees note

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

Tuition fees

Questions about fees?

Contact Student Finance on:

+44 (0)1865 534400

financefees@brookes.ac.uk

Please note, tuition fees for Home students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students in line with an inflationary amount determined by government. Oxford Brookes University intends to maintain its fees for new and returning Home students at the maximum permitted level.

For further information please see our 2025-26 tuition fees FAQs.

Tuition fees for International students may increase in subsequent years both for new and continuing students.

The following factors will be taken into account by the University when it is setting the annual fees: inflationary measures such as the retail price indices, projected increases in University costs, changes in the level of funding received from Government sources, admissions statistics and access considerations including the availability of student support. 

How and when to pay

Tuition fee instalments for the semester are due by the Monday of week 1 of each semester. Students are not liable for full fees for that semester if they leave before week 4. If the leaving date is after week 4, full fees for the semester are payable.

  • For information on payment methods please see our Make a Payment page.
  • For information about refunds please visit our Refund policy page

Financial support and scholarships

For general sources of financial support, see our Fees and funding pages.

Additional costs

Please be aware that some courses will involve some additional costs that are not covered by your fees. Specific additional costs for this course are detailed below.

We try to keep additional costs to a minimum by providing your materials online.  However, some students may wish to purchase their own copies of key texts. 

The published course and module descriptions were accurate when first published and remain the basis of the course, but the University has had to modify some course and module content in response to government restrictions and social distancing requirements. In the event of changes made to the government advice and social distancing rules by national or local government, the University may need to make further alterations to the published course content. Detailed information on the changes will be sent to every student on confirmation in August to ensure you have all the information before you come to Oxford Brookes.

Programme changes:
On rare occasions we may need to make changes to our course programmes after they have been published on the website. For more information, please visit our changes to programmes page.