Team of lecturers ready to launch new degree subject at University of Northampton

A new degree subject will be launched at the University of Northampton next year.

The university’s first ever physiotherapy students will begin their degrees in January 2021 in a new practical teaching space that has been specifically constructed on the Waterside Campus.

Senior Lecturer Rachel Love is overseeing the planning for the new degree and will take on the lead role.

She said: “The programme at UON has been designed to be different and contemporary, to prepare our students to be the critical problem-solvers, leaders and evidence-informed workforce of the future.

“Students will hold the notion of patient-centred care at the heart of everything they do.

“The changemaker values of UON and the volunteering opportunities within the programme will contribute to enhancing this quality.

“We aim to empower our students to in-turn enable them to make strong foot prints into the profession.

“I know I speak for Marian and Paulina when I say that we are all eager to meet our first physiotherapy students very soon.”

Rachel has also welcomed two new members of staff to her lecturing team - Marian Hepburn-Barnes and Dr Paulina Kloskowska.

Marian, who qualified in 2009 and has lectured previously, said: “I like the idea of empowering the next generation of NHS professionals through lecturing. I want to look after grassroots physios; they might look after me one day.

“I’m a cardiorespiratory specialist and bring a lot of acute care enthusiasm. This type of physiotherapy care can yield immediate results as well as provide experience in long term condition management.”

Paulina, who also qualified in 2009 and has previously worked in research, added: “Physiotherapy as a profession has been experiencing a period of growth for the past 10 years and this is what we as a team will deliver and – naturally – our students will inherit this approach and be able to run with in their careers.

“To continue this growth, physiotherapy needs modern, forward thinking people to bring all aspects of the profession together using evidence to question the professional status quo; we should not hang on to the past, accepted ways of doing things.

“We need to take different paths to the ones we have been walking. People who break barriers are what’s needed, and this is what our team will bring. Our course will be quite unique because of this.”

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