The Covid-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on the higher education providers (HEP) ability to meet all aspects of pre-registration education required by the approved curriculum and standards. They have had to change the approaches used in the delivery and assessment of undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare science programmes. While the Academy welcomes individual queries, it is expected that HEIs ensure any proposed change is within the HEP’s academic regulations, follows nationally recognised guidance such as the QAA’s UK Quality Code for Higher Education (2018) and that graduates have clearly demonstrated that they meet the programme learning outcomes.
The Academy wishes to assure and reassure students and graduates of such programmes that they will be able to apply to join the relevant part of the Academy’s register providing they can evidence through their degree certificate or transcript that they have completed the programme successfully.
Education & Training
Closure of the AHCS, IPEM, RCCP Shared Temporary Register
The Academy for Healthcare Science (AHCS), the Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine (IPEM), and Registration Council for Clinical Physiologists (RCCP) set up the Shared Temporary Register in April 2020. It was set up to enable final year healthcare science students across the UK to practice as registered professionals within the healthcare science workforce to support the public health response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.
Following joint discussions, AHCS, IPEM and RCCP have agreed that the Shared Temporary Register will close on 1 November 2021.
When the Shared Temporary Register closes, the AHCS, IPEM and RCCP will contact those listed and invite them to apply to their preferred PSA accredited register for full registration using the usual application processes, if they have not done so already.
The AHCS will also encourage its previously lapsed registrants who had joined the Shared Temporary Register to re-apply to the AHCS Healthcare Science Practitioner Register.
AHCS Standards of Education and Training for MSC Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes.
The Academy for Healthcare Science approves Modernising Scientific Careers (MSC) education providers for the following programmes:
- Practitioner Training Programmes (PTP);
- Scientist Training Programmes (STP); and
- Higher Specialist Scientist Training (HSST).
See here for details of all possible career pathways for Modernised Scientific Careers programmes:
The Academy delegates the task of accrediting Higher Education Institutions (HEI) offering MSC programmes to the National School of Healthcare Science (NSHCS), which undertakes the accreditation process against the Academy’s Standards of Education and Training (SETs) below .
The Academy quality assures the accreditation process undertaken by the NSHCS by observing a sample of accreditation visits, sitting on the panel that reviews accreditation outcomes and through its membership of the Health Education England (HEE) Healthcare Science Implementation Group (HCS ING) Education and Training Scrutiny Group (ETSG).
The overarching requirement is that programmes align with and are mapped to these SETs, to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) SETs at STP level, and to the relevant Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) subject statements.
Read the AHCS Standards of Education and Training for MSC Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programmes.