Why choose this course?
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Develop decision making and clinical skills in realistic settings, from home environments and ambulances to simulation rooms, practising with manikins and actors to prepare you for real emergencies.
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Approximately
10
weeks each year will be spent on placement with the LAS.
Paramedic Science BSc (Hons) degree Course overview
This course is for you if you enjoy working in varied and unpredictable environments and want a career that truly makes a difference. You will learn how to manage life-threatening emergencies such as cardiac arrest and traumatic injury, while also developing a strong foundation in minor illness, long-term conditions, mental health, and social care—preparing you to care for people of all ages and backgrounds.
Practical experience from day one
You’ll spend around a third of your time working alongside clinical professionals and their patients to see what it takes to apply theory to practice. When you’re on campus, you’ll learn in our paramedic simulation centre. Here you’ll find immersion rooms, a clinical skills lab and replica ambulances. It’s a safe space where our subject experts will help you explore scenarios and practise on manikins and with professional actors later in your studies.
Your mental health matters. We want to create resilient and compassionate paramedics – and that means helping you overcome the challenges you face. As well as support from the teaching team, you can talk to our student wellbeing champions. It’s not an easy career path, but it certainly is one of the most rewarding.
Course info
At the start of the course, we’ll familiarise you with ambulance and paramedic equipment, practising safe assessment and handling of patients. You’ll also learn to measure vital signs and administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) including use of a defibrillator.
Once you’ve mastered these areas, you’ll look at health, disorder and dysfunction. This will help you better understand, anticipate, direct and provide care to patients. Building a strong knowledge of the body will also be crucial. We’ll cover anatomy and physiological processes alongside other basic sciences such as microbiology.
To help you apply your skills, you’ll spend around half your time on different placements. These will be with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), in hospital wards, theatres, A&E and maternity departments, across all three years of the degree.
Preparing for your career
As you approach graduation, we’ll support you in making the transition from student to confident, fully qualified paramedic ready to register with the Health Care Professions Council (HCPC). You’ll strengthen your communication and leadership skills while learning how to use alternative referral pathways for both stable and unstable chronic conditions, helping you deliver the right care in the right place at the right time, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions.
A key part of your final year is your literature review. This can be on any topic of your choice. Perhaps you’ll analyse certain treatment techniques or methods of diagnosing injury or illness.
Endorsement
This course is officially approved by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) - the governing body for Allied Healthcare Professionals and also endorsed by the Royal College of Paramedics. The Royal College of Paramedics is the recognised professional body for all paramedics in the UK, whose role is to promote and develop the paramedic profession across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
While the City St George’s programmes are recognised by many different countries, applicants are advised to check with their own individual national authorities if they wish to practise in their chosen country.
Facilities
Based in the thriving multi-cultural hub of Tooting in South West London, our location has the added advantage of being just a short tube ride from Central London and all the city lifestyle has to offer.
We also have a range of specialist paramedic facilities to support your learning, listed below.
Paramedic simulation centre
Complete with two fully-fitted rear sections of an ambulance, three purpose-built domicile rooms, a skills lab and two immersion rooms capable of 270° projections, our facilities can be adapted to recreate a wide range of real-world settings and scenarios. Learning in our realistic environments helps you build confidence, adaptability and resilience - key qualities of todays paramedic.
We also have a range of specialist health and academic facilities to support your learning, listed below.
Anatomy suite
The anatomy suite is where present and future healthcare professionals and scientists in the hospital and University learn or expand on their anatomy knowledge directly from the human body, through access to high quality anatomy resources.
These include plastinated (preserved) specimens, osteological materials, anatomical models and digital/imaging resources such as Anatomage tables and Complete Anatomy.
Pathology museum
As a paramedic student, you will have dedicated teaching days in our on-site pathology museum, which houses over 2,000 pathological specimens. These include a wide range of conditions, from lung cancer to tuberculosis, giving you a unique opportunity to see disease processes up close.
Used for small-group teaching across our health programmes, this inspiring learning space helps you build a clear, practical understanding of how diseases develop and affect the body - supporting both those coming straight from college and those returning to education with valuable life experience.
Library and learning technology
Our modern health sciences library offers a wide range of books, e-books, academic journals and other resources to support you.
You will also have access to online resources, such as the Canvas virtual learning environment and our Hunter discovery service to help you find the information you need.
The library is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and comprises silent, quiet and group learning areas, as well as four group discussion rooms.
IT facilities
We have five computer suites housing 260 workstations. Three of these suites are accessible 24 hours a day.
It’s easy to find a free space with our handy real-time computer locator. We also have 75 self-service laptops available.
Free Wi-Fi covers the whole campus, including all accommodation. You can use these resources to access your course materials, discussion boards and feedback through Canvas.
Student support
Whether you are heading off to university straight from school or college, or returning to education as a mature student, we want to ensure your experience is positive from the outset.
Students frequently tell us they greatly appreciate the diversity of our student and staff body, as well as the patients who access healthcare services in the borough of Tooting. We attract a substantial number of ‘mature’ students, aged 21 or over when they start; many have family and caring responsibilities.
We offer a full range of academic support and student services across all institutes, departments and faculties, some of which are listed below. We believe we offer a transformative educational experience underpinned by cooperation and collaboration between staff and students.
Our innovative Student-Staff Partnership Grants (SSPGs), for example, provide funding for small projects led jointly by students and staff.
Wellbeing
The Department of Paramedic Science prides itself on a unique model of pastoral and academic support, with a whole team that genuinely cares about your wellbeing. Whatever support you need you can speak to any member of the team, and we are here to support you throughout your studies.
We place a strong emphasis on promoting positive wellbeing, offering practical tools and strategies to help you look after yourself, and each other, while preparing for a demanding and rewarding career as a registered allied healthcare professional.
Our learning community is built on a strong culture of support, including the first national peer-support model in our student paramedic Blue Light Champions, ensuring that both college leavers and those returning to education feel supported, confident, and part of a close-knit community from day one.
Personal tutor
You will be allocated a personal tutor at the beginning of the programme – someone with whom you can have regular contact, who you ask questions and discuss problems with, both academic and personal.
The main purpose of a personal tutor is to monitor your progress, pick up and help you resolve any problems, whether academic or welfare related.
Even if they do not have the answer, they will point you in the right direction towards the best people to deal with specific problems.
Induction programme
Within your first week at City St George’s, you’ll take part in an induction programme to help with your orientation and introduce you to various study skills, including interprofessional learning and use of the Dissecting Room.
Additional sessions provide advice and guidance about the Registry, Students’ Union, personal tutor system, safety, occupational health and sexual health awareness.
Clinical placement support
We have service level agreements with most placement sites and lecturers act as clinical placement co-ordinators.
They work closely with placement sites to ensure all students receive high quality training and mentoring whilst on clinical placements, and will visit students during placements to support and monitor progress.
Academic staff support
You’ll have access to your lecturers, usually by arrangement via email.
Mums and dads scheme
‘Mums and dads’ is a buddy scheme organised by the Students’ Union. Every fresher (first year student) has the choice of being assigned a ‘parent’ from the year above in their respective course.
The returning student then acts as a ‘go to’ for advice about courses and university life, providing an additional support system during your first year, both academically and socially.
They have been in your position and know the struggles of starting university; they also know all of the best pubs, clubs, restaurants, gyms and will help introduce you to your new City St George’s family.
Student Life Centre
Our Student Centre team can help you with every aspect of student life: finances, accommodation, exams and assessment, academic procedures, admissions, international queries, disability and wellbeing, even finding your way around – whatever it takes to make you feel at home.
Each course has a designated contact within the student centre to link to and your personal tutor can signpost you to relevant support, including a confidential counselling service.
Careers service
Our careers service works to support current students and recent graduates to find and maintain the career of their dreams.
We work with careers tutors from each course area to ensure that careers activities specific to your programmes and future profession come to you.
Each year, primarily for second and third-year students, we hold an annual radiography careers fair, hosted online in 2020, to which we invite various NHS trusts to come and showcase their organisations.
Structure
Course content
At the start of the course, we’ll familiarise you with ambulance and paramedic equipment, practising safe assessment and handling of patients. You’ll also learn to measure vital signs and administer immediate life support.
Once you’ve mastered these areas, you’ll look at health, disorder and dysfunction. This will help you better understand, anticipate, direct and provide care to patients. Building a strong knowledge of the body will also be crucial.
We’ll cover anatomy and physiological processes alongside other basic sciences such as microbiology.
To help you apply your skills, you’ll spend around half your time on different placements. These will be with the London Ambulance Service (LAS), in hospital wards, theatres, A&E and maternity departments, across all three years of the degree.
The time on the programme is split between university based learning and clinical placements.
Patient-focused from the outset, your learning is designed to equip you with a range of essential professional skills and competencies, which become progressively more advanced as the course develops. Leadership and medicine management form part of the spiral curriculum embedded in the programme.
Year 1
In Year 1, you will become familiarised with the safe selection and use of ambulance and paramedic equipment, practising safe assessment and handling of patients, measuring vital signs and administering immediate life support, including defibrillation, in simulated sessions.
You will also be introduced to the essential foundations, gaining a broad understanding of the role and responsibilities of paramedics and the legal and ethical framework underpinning professional practice.
You will build a strong foundational knowledge of the anatomy, physiology and physiological processes of the human body and other relevant basic sciences, including microbiology, pharmacology, genetics, growth and development.
Year 2
In Year 2, you will increase your knowledge of health, disorder and dysfunction so that you can better understand, anticipate, direct and provide appropriate care to patients.
This includes the pathophysiology of pain, tumours and infectious or genetic diseases affecting the cardiovascular, respiratory, nervous, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, endocrine and renal systems in both children and adults.
You will consider problems with drugs in renal and liver diseases, pregnancy, the elderly and children. Medical ethics, law, and the effects of human factors on patient safety are also covered.
Clinical skills development focuses on acute and critical illnesses, such as heart attacks, strokes and diabetic emergencies.
This will include advanced analgesia, airway management, advanced vascular access, allowing for the knowledge and understanding required to offer advanced life support to patients suffering from out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OOHCA).
You will also spend time assessing, identifying and managing treatment regimens for a range of mental health conditions.
Year 3
The third and final year aims to help you transition to professional paramedic practice. Skills development focuses on styles of leadership, mentoring, communication, decision making and the adoption of a holistic patient approach involving other healthcare professionals.
You will look at alternative referral pathways for stable and unstable chronic conditions to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. You will also undertake a literature review on a topic of your choice – this could range from analysing certain treatment techniques to methods of diagnosing injury or illness.
You will graduate as an effective, independent paramedic with empathy, sensitivity and a patient-centred approach to practice, able to problem solve, prioritise and adapt to the changing needs and demands of the profession.
Indicative module list
Modules throughout the course may include
- Introduction to Paramedic Clinical Care
- Science for Paramedics
- Professional Practice 1
- Applied Paramedic Clinical Care
- Applied Science for Paramedics
- Professional Practice 2
- Assessment and Evaluation of Mental Health in Out of Hospital Setting
- Evidence Based Practice for Paramedics
- Paramedic approach and Management of Hospital Avoidance
- Paramedic Management of Minor Health Problems
- Transition to Paramedic Practice.
Placement
Half of your time will be spent on placements in diverse clinical settings.
Not only with London Ambulance Service, which is the UK’s busiest ambulance service, but also in hospital departments, including accident and emergency, theatre and maternity.
We also offer community placements which can include GP surgeries and mental health units.
The variety and volume of clinical placement opportunities we offer is one of the highlights of our course.
You will sample professional life in a range of ambulance and hospital clinical settings, which includes hospital wards, theatres, GP surgeries, walk-in centres, minor injuries units, maternity, community nursing, mental health and palliative care teams.
You will spend approximately 10 weeks each year on placement with the LAS.
Interspersed throughout the three years, these elements tend to be in blocks, and you will be required to attend shifts alongside your Practice Educator’s working pattern, encompassing both day and night shift patterns.
On placement, you are supervised by experienced clinicians and trained mentors.
The structure of your placement is as follows:
- Year 1 placements are mainly ambulance-based with a short placement on an Hospital unit/ward.
- Year 2 placements go into theatres, maternity, coronary care unit (CCU) and A&E, (one-week each) plus 10 weeks of ambulance placement.
- Year 3 placements consist of four weeks of community, mental health placement and 10 weeks of ambulance placement.
Practice placement locations include:
- London Ambulance Service (LAS), South West London
- Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, Carshalton, Surrey
- Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, London
- Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Kingston, Surrey
- St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London
- Croydon University Hospital, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust, Surrey.
*This list is subject to change.
Teaching and assessment
We share our site with one of the UK’s largest teaching hospitals, giving you the chance to learn in a busy healthcare environment. Most of our teaching staff have previously worked in occupational therapy roles in a range of specialist areas, so you will learn from academics with real on-the-job experience.
Studying at our Tooting site, we’ll get to know you and help you reach your potential. You’ll be part of interactive group sessions, and our academics are always on hand if you need extra support.
How our experts teach depends on the course content, but we recognise that our students have different learning styles. On this course, you can expect a diverse range of:
- Clinical placements
- Clinical skills sessions
- Computer-based sessions
- Guest lectures
- Group work
- Lab-based sessions
- Lectures
- Online learning
- Patient interaction
- Practical workshops
- Seminars
- Simulation Tutorials.
Assessment
The way we assess your learning will change depending on the module but we use a variety of assessment methods so every student has a chance to show their knowledge and strengths. You can expect a mixture of:
- A clinical portfolio
- Case reviews
- Clinical practice assessments
- Essays
- Exams
- Oral presentations
- Poster presentations
- Reports
- Research projects.
To prepare you for the practical challenges you’ll face, we design assessments that reflect real-world scenarios, such as case reviews and research projects.
Your assessments will be formative and summative. This means some won’t count towards your final grade and you’ll have the chance to improve based on our feedback.
Expertise
You will struggle to find another university with such diverse paramedic science expertise. Our team have experience in everything from critical care and patient transfer to the helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS).
Our team also includes:
- Simulation experts
- Major incident expertise
- A Red Cross clinical lead
- Mental health practitioner
- Urgent care and primary care specialists
- Anaesthetists
- Intensivists
- An educational technologist
- A senior technician
- An anatomist.
You can also expect guest lectures from:
- Consultant paediatricians
- Gynaecologists
- Doctors
- Midwives
- Paramedic facilitators from LAS and SECAmb (South East Coast Ambulance Service)
- Ethics, consent, mental health and end-of-life experts.
As well as placements, we also run away-days with other emergency services such as Transport for London, London Fire Brigade and the Metropolitan Police.
You’ll see how real-life accident and crime scenes are dealt with first hand, from patient extraction from crashed vehicles to a mass casualty incident on the underground.
Fees and funding
Fees for year 2026 / 27
Home/UK
£9,790
Our undergraduate fees are set in line with the maximum permitted by the UK Government and may increase in subsequent years in line with government policy.
Funding options
Explore up-to-date information about funding options, available financial support and typical living costs.
- There are no fee waivers available for this course
- Means tested support is available for 2026/27 entry.
NHS Grant
To support your ambition to work in this field, the NHS offer eligible students on this course a £5,000 maintenance grant each year.
Additional expenses
Some of our degrees may involve additional expenses which are not covered by your tuition fees. Find out more about additional expenses.
Career
There is a huge demand for paramedics, not just here in the UK, but all over the world. Because our degree is approved by the HCPC, you’ll be eligible to apply for registration as a paramedic.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to confidently assess, treat and transport sick and injured people and respond to healthcare needs in an emergency. You’ll be able to work independently and show important qualities like empathy.
Employers will see your ability to problem solve, prioritise and adapt to the changing needs and demands of the profession. You’ll be ready for roles in a range of areas including:
- Emergency control centre
- General practice
- Air medical service
- 111 and minor injury units
- NHS ambulances
- A&E and walk-in centres
- Police custody suites and prisons
- Oil rigs
- Rapid response units
- Prisons.
Paramedic careers are hugely rewarding and form an integral part of the emergency healthcare workforce. However, you may choose to further your study with postgraduate education, move into a role where you’re teaching others or carry out research.
Possible career pathways
- Emergency control centres
- General Practice
- HEMS
- Minor injury units
- NHS ambulances
- A&E
- Walk-in centres
- 111
- Police custody suites
- Prisons
- Oil rigs
- Rapid response units.
Advanced careers
- Specialist practice
- Management
- Research
- Teaching.
How to apply
This course is currently open for 2026 entry applications. The UCAS application deadline is 14 January 2026.
You will be able to apply through your school or college using the Apply system, which enables you to submit your application directly to the UCAS website.
You can apply to up to five universities or institutions on the form. The UCAS code for this course at City St George's, University of London is C60.
Please take care to enter the correct course code when applying, particularly for subjects with a Foundation year or with BEng (Hons) and MEng (Hons) or BSc (Hons) and MSci (Hons) options.
UCAS has implemented an 'invisibility of choices' policy so that, on the initial application and while you are receiving decisions, each institution can see only their entry and not those of other institutions you have chosen. This ensures that your application for a course at City St George's is considered solely on your academic and personal qualities.
There is an application fee for some students when submitting their application form, please see the UCAS website for more details.
Non-academic Requirements
Below is some information regarding the non-academic requirements for this course.
Nationality
Citizens of the UK, or those with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, can apply for this course.
Personal Statement
In addition to meeting the academic criteria for admission, you must be able to demonstrate an understanding of the paramedic role, and an awareness of and interest in potential career opportunities.
Alongside this you should be able to demonstrate through relevant life and/or work experiences how your personal values align with the values of the NHS, and explain why you want to study Paramedic Science.
Work Experience and Insight
We understand the challenges for our prospective applicants for medicine and allied health courses trying to gain work experience at this time, particularly in clinical settings.
In response to the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have chosen to relax our work experience requirements for prospective applicants for our courses which would normally require these.
Despite the relaxed requirements, we still require our applicants to have an understanding of the realities of working as a healthcare professional and to show they have the necessary skills and attributes for their chosen career.
Online resources can give you valuable insight into working in the healthcare sector and outline the wide range of careers and courses available.
You can find a number of suggested resources for each of our courses here.
Interview (MMI)
If you meet the entry requirements above, you will be invited to attend a Multiple Mini Interview (MMI). This will usually be in-person, however we can also offer remote MMIs for international applicants.
You can find further information about this process on our MMI Guidance page, however please note that some of this information may change for those applying during the 2026 application cycle.
Occupational Health Check
Should you receive an offer to study at City St George’s, you will be required to complete a health check and be declared fit to study and practise by the Occupational Health (OH) department before you begin your studies.
The following vaccinations are mandatory for all healthcare students before you begin your studies:
- MMR (measles, mumps and rubella)
- Meningococcal meningitis
- Diphtheria
- Pertussis (whooping cough)
- Poliomyelitis
- Tetanus
As part of the process, you will also be screened by the OH team for Chickenpox, Tuberculosis, HIV and Hepatitis B and C.
We do not currently require you to have been vaccinated against Covid-19, but we strongly recommend that you get double vaccinated before the start of your studies, unless medically exempt.
When admitting candidates to study and practise as a health practitioner, we have an obligation to both patients and to the individual student. Candidates who are concerned about a health issue are advised to contact us.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check and Additional Declarations
This course will include work with children and vulnerable adults, so you will be required to submit a series of declarations.
If you are invited to an interview, we will request some additional information from you, regarding your criminal record, educational history and employment history.
You will also have the opportunity to make any other declarations that you’d like us to be aware of. We may not able to consider applicants who were suspended from previous study/work due to fitness to practise issues or failure in assessments/examinations.
If you are made an offer, you will be required to complete an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. More information about this is sent to applicants as part of the admissions process.
Recent Engagement in Education
Due to the demanding nature of the programme, it is important that applicants can demonstrate recent engagement in education.
If the qualifications that you are applying on the basis of (e.g. Level 3 or degree level qualifications) were awarded more than five years ago (e.g. before summer 2020), it may still be possible for us to consider your application.
In this case, we would look at supplementary level 3 qualifications, or relevant work experience, that you have undertaken within the last five years.
These applications will be considered on a case-by-case basis, following submission of a UCAS application.
Application Checklist
You must provide:
- full details of your Level 2 (GCSE or equivalent) qualifications with grades
- full details of your Level 3 (A Level or equivalent) qualifications with achieved/predicted grades
- a personal statement (more information about this document is available on the UCAS website)
- an academic reference from your current or most recent institutions with predicted grades
When to apply
Applications for entry in September 2026 should have arrived at UCAS by 14 January 2026. Those that arrive after this will be considered only at City St George's discretion.
Deferred entry
We will consider applications from applicants who wish to defer entry by a year, provided you plan to use the time constructively. If you are offered a place on the course and subsequently decide to defer, you must inform us by 1 June of the year of application.
After application
Acknowledgement emails are sent out as soon as we receive your application. Please make sure that your email account is able to accept communications from City St George’s as we will mainly communicate with you via email.
Contacting UCAS
Website: www.ucas.com
Address: Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), Rosehill, New Barn Lane, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, GL52 3LZ
Telephone:
- from inside the UK 0871 468 0468
- from outside the UK +44 (0)871 468 0468
For callers with hearing difficulties:
- from inside the UK use the Text Relay service on 18001 0871 468 0468
- from outside the UK dial +44 151 494 1260 (text phone) and then ask the operator to dial 0871 468 0468.
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