Clinical placements

At Leeds you have the opportunity to work across different NHS trust which exposes you to a variety of clinical environments.

The breadth of specialities you will experience while on placement provides valuable insight and will allow you to develop a more rounded understanding of practices across audiology centres. As a result of this approach, our students are better equipped and more able to adopt a flexible approach to working in different clinical settings following graduation.

The duration of placements will be around 10 weeks in year one, up to 15 weeks in year two and around 20 weeks in year three and comprise of day and block placements.

Exceptional clinical placements

Our students always talk positively about their experiences on clinical placement. We have a clinical placement coordinator who works closely with our clinical colleagues to ensure that all our clinical placements throughout the Yorkshire region provide students with an exceptional experience.

Whilst on placement you will also be supported by a member of the audiology lecturing team who will have worked in clinical departments and will be able to help you gain the professional and clinical skills required to be an audiologist.

Placement locations

Audiology placements are based in a variety of hospitals and centres including those in Harrogate, York, Hull and Bradford, and one of the key training partners for our courses is the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. This trust is one of the largest and most innovative in England, combining high-quality clinical services with academic research, pushing the boundaries of healthcare. We also have close relationships with specialist units in the region.

All you need to know about our clinical placements

How our placements are structured

Clinical placements are arranged for you in NHS hospitals in the Yorkshire and Humber region (and one opportunity in Newcastle) in tandem with practical training in our bespoke audiology laboratories at the University. These will be around 10 weeks in year one, up to 15 weeks in year two and around 20 weeks in year three and comprise of both single day and block placements.

What you will learn during your placement

Year 1: You will experience short placements in audiology clinics. These placements are normally 2 and 3 week blocks, one is usually early in December and one usually around Eastertime. This sandwiching of placement with academic study will give you the proven advantage of enhanced learning, putting theory learnt in lectures into practice.

Year 2: You will concentrate on audiology practice using the same sandwiching method of theory and practice. You will develop your skills during around 15 weeks of practice development and clinical placement. You will be on clinical placements throughout both Semester 1 and 2, before a block clinical placement from June - July of up to 6 weeks.

Year 3: During Semester 1 you will spend up to two days a week on placement finishing with a 2 week block placement in early December. You will spend up to two days a week in Semester 2 on clinical placement (with Thursdays and Fridays usually given as study days). After Easter you will be in placement Mondays – Fridays. By the end of Year 3 you will have gained the experience and qualification necessary to secure a Band 5 practitioner job.

Hospital placements which were woven into the Audiology degree, developed knowledge and confidence in how to present myself both physically and behaviourally.

Chloe Rigby, Audiologist, London, Graduated in 2015

How it will benefits you by going on placements throughout the course

By going out on placement in your first year at the University of Leeds, you will be able to start putting theory from the classroom into practise and be developing your audiological skills. Other courses may not give you this opportunity to work with real patients so early.

We guarantee that every student gets a placement

We pride ourselves in providing properly trained Audiologists (our graduates) to our NHS hospitals and private practice partners who rely on us for their future staff. Therefore, they offer us the placements we need as it is in their future interest. We also limit our course places to 20-25 students to ensure we can guarantee you a placement. Other courses may have much larger numbers and expect you to try and find your own placement which is not easy and could be anywhere else in the UK. They may also expect you to attend interview in competition with students from other universities and these potential placements could be a great distance outside the region you are studying in.

Where our placements are based

We keep our students local within Yorkshire and the Humber (and one in Newcastle) in order to make life easier for you so you can get back to Leeds to resume your social life!

I know not all Universities find placements and accommodation for their students, but Leeds do support their students in this way. This is really helpful and reduces a lot of stress.

Olu Oladele, 2017 graduate

The Audiology degree at Leeds gives you an excellent grounding in patient centred care. I am now a Senior Audiologist, I would not have got here without the skills this degree taught me or my experiences on placement. When people ask, I always feel proud to say that I studied Audiology at Leeds.

Amy Binder, Audiologist at Torbay Hospital, Graduated 2012

audiology private sector placements, hearing aid dispensing,

Enhancing your career

On completion of our course you will be qualified and ready to work for a range of different employers which will give you a number of options once graduated. The course is HCPC approved which enables our graduates to apply for HCPC registration and seek employment as a Hearing Aid Dispenser.

What you will learn

In recent years we are pleased to have developed a circuit of exciting placement opportunities around the Yorkshire area with Boots and Amplifon. You will get the opportunity to experience how hearing aids are dispensed by high street providers and learn valuable skills in customer care, professionalism and understanding the client journey. You will learn specialist procedures and see the audiological profession from a commercial aspect.

We have also developed a close strategic partnership with Bayfields who own and operate stores across the north and the south east of England. The University of Leeds and Bayfields have agreed new opportunities for students to gain work experience in Bayfields stores and learn how they care for their clients. You will have the opportunity to benefit from this partnership through the delivery of some classroom teaching by Bayfields’ staff and the possibility of attending placement in one of their stores.

Additional benefits

We are constantly innovating the relationships we have with our commercial partners and provide several opportunities for hearing aid manufacturers to contribute to the teaching on our course. We want you to benefit by developing advanced knowledge in technological advancements in the sector and we believe that the combination of manufacturer and retail expertise offered will really enhance your career. This knowledge, in tandem with both commercial and NHS placements will prepare you for a successful and exciting audiology career.