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Introducing a doctoral level entry route into the occupational therapy profession in the UK: Findings from community discussions

Project summary

What we wanted to explore
To help explain what we wanted to explore in this project, please notice your first reaction to the following questions:

  • How would I feel about the opportunity for people to register as an occupational therapist and be awarded a doctorate at the same time?
  • Do I think the opportunity to register as an occupational therapist via a doctoral level route is a good or bad thing for the profession and / or the public in the UK?

Conversations started after colleagues at several universities offering occupational therapy routes into the profession, including pre-registration BSc, MSc and more, approached us. A few wanted to add a doctoral level pre-registration route to their existing offer and asked for our view about approving (accrediting) the new route. This is important because the courses in the UK that we accredit are automatically recognised by the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT). This, along with other approvals, gives a high level of trust in the quality of the programmes.

UK university providers want to add this route to the other pre-registration routes – not replace them. There are different conversations in different countries about the starting level qualification for registration as an occupational therapist which mustn’t be confused with the aims of this project.

When we started discussing the pre-registration doctoral level entry route, we saw this was a complex topic which needed in-depth thinking. The response needed to be well thought through and represent the range of views that our members hold. We also needed to listen to people outside of the profession.

What we did

We held four discussion events and invited a wide range of people, including occupational therapists and learners, people who access services, a representative from the regulator Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), service managers and other people interested in the topic. The events took place at different times of the day, including the evening, to bring people together to discuss the proposed additional route.

Before the events, the project team talked to people with experience of setting up and running other doctoral level pre-registration courses in the UK and the US to learn from their experiences. The team shared their learning at the discussion events and a member of the public contributed their views too.

We used a social media hashtag to engage in virtual conversations on Facebook and Twitter, letting people know that the posts would be added to the data for analysis.

By the end of the discussions, there were 84 pages of word-based data. A researcher analysed the data and eight themes emerged as topics that we need to think about in more detail. We shared these themes and explanations were shared with some of the event participants who agreed they accurately represented the conversations.

What we found out

Eight themes emerged from the data that we need to focus on. You’ll see these themes below along with an explanation for each which use words from the data.

At our community discussion events, participants concluded we all need to commit to influencing, shaping and taking positive action to make structural changes to enhance equity and justice into and within the profession. 

We will need to keep talking, listening compassionately and sharing information to help achieve this.

Theme Included in the theme (definition)
Value There is value for lots of different people including the learner, the profession and the taxpayer in introducing pre-registration doctoral level studies, although some people may not value the doctoral route. We must value all qualifications. This new additional route will be a minority route as part of a broader offer of different routes
Visibility People with pre-registration doctorates might enter the profession in new or different settings (e.g. research, product design and evaluation) making occupational therapists more visible in more places. Employers may need help to understand the new route so it doesn’t become invisible.
Viability There are some practical things to think about including making sure we have enough people to supervise learners at pre-registration doctoral level and developing career pathways. We need to make the admissions process and the route inclusive for all people wanting to take it.
Expectations It will be important to manage the expectations of the learners, the people supporting their learning, future employers and the public. Learners will graduate with advanced thinking skills but they will still be new to practice.
Perceptions There are mixed perceptions about this route. There is excitement at the idea of more doctoral level occupational therapists and what that level of thinking could bring to the profession. But there is concern that it could be elitist. It could be confusing to people who access services if an occupational therapist has ‘Dr’ on their name badge and works in a hospital setting.
Equity and diversity The route could attract a more diverse group into the profession with different experiences e.g. people who want to design and engineer new products. However, there is concern that it could become a route for the rich. If this became the case and doctoral learners got more leadership opportunities when they graduated, this could limit opportunities for people from a range of backgrounds.
Accessibility The route could attract new people into the profession but if it is full-time, like most courses currently, it still won’t be accessible to people who want or need to study part-time.
Clarity of vision As a profession and as a professional body, we need to be clear about what the pre-registration doctoral route offers and what we are expecting it to deliver.Most importantly, as with all routes, it must continue to produce occupational therapists who practice in a safe and ethical way.

Our decision and next steps

After carefully considering the different views and findings from our community discussion events, we’ve decided to support the addition of a pre-registration doctoral level entry route into the occupational therapy profession in the UK. This will be an additional route – it will be one of many options for entering the profession. We discussed this decision with our Learning and Development Board and our Senior Leadership Team confirmed it.

There are three actions that we will do at the same time. We will:

  • Review the Learning and development standards for pre-registration education (2019) to identify the required changes to include the pre-registration doctoral level route as an additional level of award.
  • Host a series of events for ongoing community dialogue to explore the themes in more detail and focus specifically on identifying the immediate and ongoing actions.
  • Explore ways to support colleagues at the universities who are already preparing pre-registration doctoral level occupational therapy courses.

Find out more about the events and book your spot.

How to find out more about our findings

This is a brief summary of the project’s main findings. The risk with brief summaries is that they can reduce a complex topic and portray it as simple – we know that risk applies here. In reality, the discussions and the analysis were detailed and carefully considered and included areas where we have agreed and disagreed with each other. We don’t all have the same opinion and that is okay. So that we don’t oversimplify our discussions, we have committed to writing an article for a peer-reviewed journal, so hopefully there will be further detailed information available soon.