Physiotherapy

Entry requirements

The general University entrance requirement for registration for a research degree is normally a First or Upper Second Class Honours degree (1st or 2:1).

An interview will be required as part of the admissions process and will be conducted by at least two academic staff members remotely via MS Teams, Zoom, or face to face.

Applicants will be required to submit a personal statement and a research statement.
Please contact your proposed supervisor, where possible, to receive feedback and guidance on your research statement before submitting it. Learn how to prepare a research statement here.

Months of entry

January, April, October

Course content

Physiotherapy offers a multi-stranded research programme exploring the development and evaluation of rehabilitation strategies, the environments in which they can be used and the lived experience of patients across a broad spectrum of acute and long term conditions. This includes the whole rehabilitation pathway and beyond, aiming to explore and promote the best in evidence-based practice. Physiotherapy at Brunel has a large team of academics who are actively involved in research across a wide range of clinical specialties. The academic team has internationally renowned expertise in cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal and neurological health and rehabilitation and in quantitative, qualitative and mixed research methodologies. We have an established national and international profile in terms of relationships with health, government, professional and research funding bodies to support collaborative research. The academic team has extensive clinical expertise and retains strong collaborative links with several key London hospitals and NHS trusts.

Find out about the exciting research we do in this area. Browse profiles of our experts, discover the research groups and their inspirational research activities you too could be part of. We’ve also made available extensive reading materials published by our academics and PhD students.

Learn more about research in this area.

Applicants are welcome to contact us about their own specialist topics and projects. However, we particularly welcome proposals on :

• Evaluating the effectiveness of contemporary and novel rehabilitation strategies for long term conditions.
• The refinement of contemporary rehabilitation, preventative and health promotion strategies used to enhance the wellbeing of people with stroke, cerebral palsy, cardiac disease, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and people in critical care.
• The use of electronic and assistive technologies.
• Peoples’ experiences of physiotherapy and/or living with long term health conditions.
• The use of principles from sports psychology to help older adults overcome the fear of falling and improve mobility and to reduce gait deficits (such as freezing of gait) in people with Parkinson’s disease.
• The use of principles from sports psychology.
• Investigating participation and pedagogy to enhance the learning experience of student physiotherapists.

Information for international students

English language requirements

Fees and funding

Brunel offers a number of funding options to research students that help cover the cost of their tuition fees, contribute to living expenses or both. Recently the UK Government made available the Doctoral Student Loans of up to £25,000 for UK and EU students and there is some funding available through the Research Councils. Many of our international students benefit from funding provided by their governments or employers. Brunel alumni enjoy tuition fee discounts of 15%.