Surrey Physio remain committed to supporting Universities with student placements. We’ve always supported students at Surrey Physio, but in 2018 we included students and student placements as part of our 5-year plan.

In 2019, we started to build up the intake of students, by forming relationships with a number of Universities. By 2020, we were taking on students offering them placements during COVID and we started to hear reports that students were unable to get hospital placement. We offered about 12 student placements in 2020, but by June 2021, we agreed to take on 40 student placements to help reduce the back-log due to COVID.

At Surrey Physio, we believe that it is part of our duty to support Universities (some of our staff even lecture at Universities). We also believe that student get an invaluable experience, with many saying comments like "This was the best placement I went on" and "This has changed my whole perception of MSK physiotherapy". We believe we should help transition a higher quality of student physiotherapists into practice. This includes upskilling them with manual therapy, electrotherapy, and rehabilitation experience. We’re continually raising the bar, and this includes our support of students.

Universities that we typically support are London South Bank, Brunel, St. Mary’s, King’s College, Winchester, and Brighton.

Here's a video we share with our students:

As a patient, it’s very likely that you may be in a treatment room with a therapist and a student. In some cases, you may even be treated by a student (for example, they may offer some exercise prescription, or may conduct a case history). In some cases, you may have your whole treatment undertaken. Students always have support from Senior Physiotherapists. Patients have the right to request a student is not present in the treatment room. Students observe policies and procedures at Surrey Physio including infection control, enhanced DBS checked, consent and communication, and health and safety training. Unfortunately, for these reasons, we are unable to take on students under the age of 18.

We thank our patients for being willing to also support our students by allowing them to observe, shadow, or treat them.