MSc Speech and Language Therapy

This course has now closed for October 2025 entry.

Are you a graduate who likes working with people? Would you like to become a registered Speech and Language Therapist within two years? If you are keen to become an allied health professional and want to shape the future of speech and language therapy, read on to find out how we can help you achieve those objectives.

There's never been a better time to train as you can now apply for a £5000 grant that you won't need to pay back! There is also an extra £3000 funding available depending on your personal circumstances. You can find more information about eligibility and how to apply on the HSC Scholarships and Funding page.

Speech and language therapists work with people of all ages who experience communication and swallowing difficulties, enabling them to maximise their independence in their social, academic and working lives. Successful completion of our course leads to eligibility to apply for registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a speech and language therapist; this is essential to register and work as a speech and language therapist.

This is a two-year fast-track programme for graduates with a related degree (psychology; language and linguistics; social science; biological sciences; medical sciences or equivalent). It is a client-focused programme which uses a wide range of teaching methods, including enquiry-based learning to integrate theory and clinical practice. You will undertake practice education placements with speech and language therapists and members of the multi professional teams in which we work.

Our course is continuously developed to reflect contemporary health, education and social care practice. A wide range of stakeholders continue to be involved, in order to ensure that changes in speech and language therapy practice are incorporated in the programme.

The School of Health and Social Care is proud to work closely with our Service User Reference Group (SURG). SURG is made up of service users, carers, and volunteers who generously share their first-hand experiences of health and social care. We work collaboratively with SURG to design our courses to ensure that we truly are putting the needs of patients and clients at the heart of what we do. SURG are involved as part of our course application processes and often form part of our interview panels. This helps us to be confident that we are selecting the right applicants for the course and their future careers. SURG members also support the delivery of our teaching sessions and research activity, which means you'll benefit from an insight into their lived experiences of living with a diagnosis, health condition, or circumstance. You'll find that not only does your clinical knowledge expand, but your empathy, compassion and ability to advocate develops also.

The School hosts a range of pre-registration courses including nursing, mental health nursing, occupational therapy, doctor of clinical psychology, oral health and social work; providing opportunities to interact with a wide range of aspiring health and social care professionals.

If you are already a registered speech and language therapist, please see Continuing Professional Development on our Health and Social Care web pages.

The cost of required uniform will be fully covered by the school.

Pre-registration Eating, Drinking and Swallowing (EDS) Competencies

The RCSLT have developed pre-registration EDS competencies (2021) in partnership with clinicians and higher education institutions to ensure that all pre-registration SLT students have the same level of competency across the UK. These competencies will become mandatory for all pre-registration SLT students who graduate from 2026 onwards.

The RCSLT pre-registration EDS competencies are embedded into our teaching and placement curriculum. Across your academic programme you will have an opportunity to achieve EDS knowledge and practical competencies. This will be supported through a combination of theory-based lectures, practical workshops, e-learning and clinical placements. EDS observations, supervised EDS assessment and management discussions can occur in a variety of placement locations including, hospitals, community services including visiting people in their own home, care homes, pre-school, schools, special education needs provision, mental health settings, secure settings, adult learning disability settings.

Once you have these pre-registration EDS competencies, you will have an enhanced skills set. Common activities a student and EDS trained speech and language therapist would complete, may include, but is not limited to:

• assessing oral movements
• carrying out oral care
• completing infection control procedures including hand washing and decontaminating equipment
• holding babies
• helping to position clients
• assisting and/or feeding clients
• touching the client's face and neck during assessment to determine movements
• travelling to client's homes
• being part of difficult discussions with clients and carers
• talking to the client and carers about the results of an assessment and future management

You will also find that, should you choose to work abroad once qualified, you will be able to evidence EDS training. This will make it easier to work as a qualified Speech and Language Therapist in countries where the RCSLT have a Mutual Recognition Agreement.

Placement information

Placements are an integral part of this course and are sourced for you from across a variety of settings (e.g.NHS organisations, independent/private SLT services, charities, and Schools) and client groups (e.g. paediatrics, adults, etc). Your placements will vary in length and are linked to the objectives of the modules you are studying. You will have a minimum of 150 clinical experience sessions (approximately 75 days). Placements will have different structures which include face-to-face, virtual, via telehealth. If you have significant experience in a particular field, we may not return you to that setting so you have the opportunity to advance your skillset.

Speech and Language Therapy placements tend to fall Monday-Friday and within office hours (e.g between 8am -6pm). To provide the best opportunities, we use a wide network of placements across the Eastern region, which means you will likely have to travel approximately 90 minutes from campus. We allocate students on placements throughout the entire East of England region (e.g. Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk) and surrounding areas. Subject to eligibility, you may be able to claim the NHS Learning Support Fund which provides reimbursement of excess travel (i.e. above your regular commute to campus, and inclusive of costs such as hire cars, etc) or accommodation costs incurred due to undertaking practical training on clinical placement. When you start your course, the SLT Placements Team will collect information about your previous work experience, whether you can drive, and other circumstances in order to aid placing you.

DBS and Occupational Health Checks

This course requires a satisfactory Occupational Health Check and enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) - both of these are organised by the University. Please contact our DBS team or Occupational Health team if you have any questions in relation to these checks.

You will also be required to register for the DBS Update Service (information relating to this service can be found here). You will need to register for this within 30 days of your DBS certificate being issues. The Update Service costs £13 per year, which the University will reimburse. You will need to keep the subscription to this Service active for the duration of your course. If you do not register for the Update Service within 30 days, or your registration lapses, and you later attend placement where this is a requirement, you will have to pay for a new DBS check, which will enable you to sign up to the Update Service. Please contact our DBS team if you have any questions relating to this.

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS Check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Further information about how to obtain an Overseas Criminal Record check can be found on the Gov.uk website.

We continue to recommend Covid and flu vaccination to all of our students. This is to protect both yourself and the vulnerable people that you may meet throughout your placement.

Professional accreditation

Approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for the purpose of providing eligibility to apply for registration with the HCPC as a speech and language therapist.

Recognised by the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists (RCSLT) for the purpose of applying for newly qualified practitioner membership.

Placement year

In order to prepare you for the workplace, opportunities are provided in practice placements, where you work with speech and language therapists and their teams in a wide variety of settings.

This workplace learning provides essential practical experience of working with service users with communication and swallowing problems.

We are committed to embedding the values of the NHS Constitution into everything we do. They define the behaviours and expectations of our staff and students, underpinning the work we do. Our students and graduates work in a wide variety of locations where these values help shape the underlying principles of excellent care.

Specialist facilities

The School of Health and Social Care is located at two sites; in the Kimmy Eldridge building at our Colchester campus and in the Gateway Building at our Southend campus. This course is based at our Colchester Campus only.

We have purpose-built Simulation Wards and Communication Skills Labs at our Colchester Campus to meet the needs of a growing and lively School. View our image gallery and find out more about our Speech and Language Therapy facilities.

Your future

We currently have graduates working in clinical, management and education positions in local Trusts, Hospitals, Schools, care organisations, and Higher Education Intuitions.

Speech and language therapists are employed in a wide variety of contexts including the NHS, education and health and social care.

Find out more about careers in speech and language therapy from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists.

89% of our postgraduate graduates are in highly skilled employment (Graduate Outcomes 2024)

UK entry requirements

A 2:2 honours degree in any subject, or international equivalent.

AND

• Successful performance at interview
• A personal statement, at least 500 words in length
• One satisfactory reference (either an academic reference or a work-based reference)

We will also consider applicants with a lower level degree on a case by case basis where the applicant has significant work experience in relevant field (please provide your CV in your application).

Disclosure and Barring Service Checks (DBS)

You must also have a satisfactory enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check (including child and adult barred list check) and a Occupational Health Check - both of these are organised by the University.

For this course, you will be required to register for the DBS Update Service (information relating to this service can be found here). You will need to register for this within 30 days of your DBS certificate being issued. The Update Service costs £13 per year, which the University will reimburse. You will need to keep the subscription to this Service active for the duration of your course.

If you do not register for the Update Service within 30 days, or your registration lapses, and you later attend a placement where this is a requirement, you will have to pay for a new DBS check, which will enable you to sign up to the Update Service. Please contact dbs@essex.ac.uk if you have any questions relating to this.”

A satisfactory Overseas Criminal Record Check/Local Police Certificate is also required, in addition to a DBS check, where you have lived outside of the UK in the last 5 years for 6 months or more. Where it is not possible to obtain an Overseas Check a relevant professional reference may be accepted

NHS Constitution and Values

As part of the selection process, students will be expected to demonstrate good knowledge and a clear understanding of the scope of work that a speech and language therapist is required to undertake as well as the significance of the NHS Constitution and its core values (you can find further information on these on the Health Education East of England website and the Gov.UK webpages.

If you aim to work as a speech and language therapist in a country outside of the UK, you will need to check with the relevant regulatory body of that country to confirm suitability.

Interviews

Interviews will be via Zoom, details of which will be provided in advance.

Interviews and offers are made on a first-come-first-served basis until the available number of places are filled. After this, offers will be made for a place on the waiting list.

References

Don't worry if you cannot provide your reference when you make your application, as if we make you an offer you will be able to provide this at a later stage. Your reference should be recent and verifiable, on an official headed document, signed and dated by the referee. If a referee wishes to provide an email reference, it must be sent from the referee’s professional email account.

Continuing Professional Development

If you are already a registered speech and language therapist, please see Continuing Professional Development on our Health and Human Sciences web pages.

English language requirements

IELTS 8.0 overall with a minimum component score of 7.5

If you do not meet our IELTS requirements then you may be able to complete a pre-sessional English pathway that enables you to start your course without retaking IELTS.

Additional Notes

The University uses academic selection criteria to determine an applicant’s ability to successfully complete a course at the University of Essex. Where appropriate, we may ask for specific information relating to previous modules studied or work experience.

Course structure

Postgraduate study is the chance to take your education to the next level. These carefully selected modules will give you the chance to explore, question, and create powerful ideas. Picked to give you an extensive and in-depth education, they'll equip you with the specialist knowledge, vital transferrable skills, and the confidence to make a genuine difference to the world around you.

Attendance at the university is full time, along with your clinical placements.

We're reactive, we're pioneering, we never stand still, so modules might change from year to year in response to new developments and innovation. Those listed below show how a typical course might look, but more detail on course structure, including details of all optional modules, is available on our Programme Specification.

We understand that deciding where and what to study is a very important decision for you. We'll make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the courses, services and facilities as described on our website and in line with your contract with us. However, if we need to make material changes, for example due to significant disruption, we'll let our applicants and students know as soon as possible.

Teaching

Teaching takes place on campus. Please be aware you will be required to be on campus for between 4-5 days per week in the Autumn and Spring term. In the Summer term, you may have more self-directed study so you may not be required to be on campus so frequently. When you are on placement, you will be expected to commit to 5 days per week..

• Teaching staff in the School include clinically qualified lecturers in speech and language therapy, adult and mental health nursing, occupational therapy and a range of other health and social care professionals.
• The multidisciplinary nature of our School and its rapid growth has fostered a dynamic and innovative learning environment
• Practical skills classes, workshops and placements are used to integrate the theory and practice of speech and language therapy

Assessment

You are assessed through a range of techniques including, course work, examination, portfolio, vivas, presentations and essays and research dissertation. All clinical placements are assessed and must be passed in order to pass modules.