About our Research

The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy has a strong commitment to research in order to build knowledge of the basic science of occupation and to advance an evidence-based culture across practice and teaching. Our goal is to develop excellent research capacity and resources in our Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy community, to support them to undertake high quality research. We achieve this by focusing on building capacity among our staff as well as our students, to work together to the benefit of all. This is done partly through attracting research grants, and high-quality researchers to become part of our team. A key aspect of our research programme is to develop strong collaborative partnerships and strategic alliances with stakeholders across diverse sectors of society with the ultimate goal of enhance occupation for individuals’ families and communities.

Our research priorities are to enhance understandings of occupation through the study of occupation across the lifespan, that includes the study of:

• Occupations in childhood and adolescence
• Environments: enabling and constraining occupation
• Patterns of occupation: adults and older adults
• Living with long-term conditions
• Scholarship of learning and teaching

The aim of this programme of study is to inform knowledge and practice for enhancing health, wellbeing and development, through participation in occupation. Currently our academic team have expertise in many areas of occupation, including a range of diverse methodologies and research methods including quantitative statistics, videography and visual methods, narrative analysis &  phenomenology.

Currently we are accepting postgraduate applications for MSc in Research.

Postgraduate Programmes

The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy offers full or part-time research degrees, either at masters or at doctoral level. Currently (2020), there are two Msc Research students registered in the programme, and seven PhD students. Two students to date have been successful in applying for the Irish Research Council (IRC) postgraduate scholarship:

1. Maeve Coughlan, IRC scholar 2018-2019 for an MSc in Research: Can I play too? The opportunities and challenges to social inclusion for pre-schoolers with ASD on the playground
2. Alice Moore, IRC scholar 2019-2022 for a PhD: Universal Design and the challenge of inclusive play provision: Portraying the opportunities and challenges to social inclusion in community playgrounds.

Past postgraduate students have gone on to present their work at national and international conference level and have been published in the Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy and other international journals. Examples include: 

Mulholland, F. & Jackson, J. (2018). The experience of older adults with anxiety and depression living in the community: Aging, occupation and mental wellbeing. British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 81(11), 657-666.

Lennon, K., Lynch, H., & Jackson, J. (2015) An occupational perspective of the lived experience of young unemployed adults in Ireland. Tullamore: AOTI Annual Conference.

Caulfield, M.& Jackson, J. (2014). Caring for a relative with Dementia: The Impact on Caregivers' Occupational Participation. Irish Journal of Occupational Therapy, 42

Coakley, E., Cremins, A., & Hunt, E. (2016). Exploring Irish occupational therapists’ perspectives of their role within CAMHS. Association of Occupational Therapists of Ireland Child and Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group study day 13th May 2016, Dublin, Ireland.

Moore, A., & Lynch, H. (2016) To explore and understand children's conceptualisations of play and well-being in contemporary Ireland. First COTEC-ENOTHE Congress, Galway.

The Programmes we offer 

• Masters by Research - Master of Sciences (MSc) Course Code: CKY46 (full-time) and CKY47 (part-time)
• Doctor of Philosophy by Research (PhD) Course Code: CKZ75 (full-time) and CKZ76 (part-time)

MSc by Research: MSc (Medicine)

The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy offers an MSc by Research which enables you to gain a systematic understanding and critical awareness of a topic which intrigues you. It can be completed full-time (12 months) or part-time (two years). Prospective students are advised to consult with the Head of Graduate Studies (E.Hunt@ucc.ie) to discuss their proposed area of research. This MSc qualification has been approved for acceptance by the NBSOT for working in the USA (with certain conditions).  For more information please see: www.ucc.ie/calendar/postgraduate/Masters

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD by Research)

The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy offers specialist supervision and research opportunities to those who wish to apply for a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). A PhD is a demonstration of research competence by achieving a subject mastery, research insight, respect for the discipline, capacity for original, independent research and an ability to communicate results and relate them to the broader discourse. Students are advised to contact the Head of Graduate Studies (E.Hunt@ucc.ie) to discuss their proposed area of research. For more information please see: www.ucc.ie/calendar/postgraduate/Doctor

How to Apply for our MSc Research and PhD Programmes

Application is on-line at www.pac.ie/ucc  All required documentation must be sent in hard copy to The Postgraduate Applications Centre, 1, Courthouse Square, Galway. 

• Closing Date for Applications:  students are encouraged to apply for June or January registration each year.
• International Students check out our colleagues at the International Education Office on https://www.ucc.ie/en/international/

Years 1 - 4

Practice learning is at the heart of the UCC occupational therapy degree programme. Practice Education comprises 1,050 hours (30 weeks) spread throughout the programme in years 1, 2, 3, and 4. Practice education placements take place in hospitals, schools and community settings. Placements are facilitated in the HSE Southern Area which includes Kerry, Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Carlow and Wexford. Where possible one practice of convenience is facilitated in the Cork area or in another county in the HSE Southern Area, if preferred. Modules in third and fourth year contribute to approximately one third of the marks of the final degree.This weighting is indicative of the value given to practice and the development of practice knowledge, skills and attitudes.

The first introductory practice education module takes place in students’ first year in a variety of practice settings. Students are generally allocated in pairs and this placement occurs full time during 2 weeks. In second year, students undertake an 8 week practice education placement typically in settings involving infants, children and/or young adults. Another two modules take place in third and fourth year and each are of ten weeks’ duration. Students may need to travel and/or arrange short-term accommodation near the placement sites.  Students will incur the costs of travel to clinical locations as well as the costs of accommodation.

Practice education is delivered through a partnership between the University, the Health Service Executive and voluntary and private sector providers. The extent of this partnership approach to teaching distinguishes practice modules from the other modules within the programme. Practice education modules facilitate a reciprocal relationship of theory influencing practice and practice influencing theory, which is essential for the development to our profession.

Students have the opportunity to participate in the ERASMUS programme which is a European student exchange programme offering students a possibility of studying or working abroad in another country for a period of up to 3 months. Students from the course have successfully completed exchanges to Denmark and Wales.

Calendar of Practice Education Experiences

The Practice Education team welcomes offers from Occupational Therapists to facilitate students during the above dates.

The Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy has worked to support local practice since the beginning of the programme in 2003. In the early years the OT clinic facilities were used by a local school for sensorimotor group sessions, local Community OT services for children and adults for equipment advice and early intervention.

Other collaborations have involved the hosting of summer camps each year run by a local private OT clinic and parent/teacher education events held in Brookfield.

We are committed to continuing to collaborate and support practice and welcome any project proposals for collaborations in the future.

This is the latest issue of our OT Practice Education Newsletter Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 7

Our Practice Education Team here in the Department of Occupational Therapy run a newsletter twice a year.  The newsletter is packed with news and updates across our OT region. We hope you find them informative and welcome your feedback on the newsletter.    

Previous Newsletters

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 1

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 2

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 3

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 4

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 5

Pract Ed Newsletter Issue 6

Why Study OT (Occupational Therapy) at UCC

The programme at UCC has been carefully designed based on educational research and best international standards. Many of our staff have been awarded the UCC President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. UCC was one of the first universities in the world to design its entire curriculum in accordance with the revised World Federation of Occupational Therapy educational guidelines. The programme focuses strongly on learning how to support people to participate in meaningful occupation in order to contribute to their individual wellbeing and for the benefit of the wider community and society.

The UCC programme focuses strongly on the student’s own development, both personal and professional and this is interwoven throughout academic and practice based modules. It is a feature that has been highlighted as being different from other Occupational Therapy courses. Learning is different at UCC too. Task Based Learning [TBL] is the medium through which you will study in many of your core Occupational Therapy Programme and so there is a lot of individual and group work that is self-directed. A great emphasis is placed on being able to talk about what you are doing and thinking. Your knowledge, skills and abilities are developed in a logical sequence over the course of the four years. At UCC, we place equal emphasis on learning to work with children/young people and adults/older adults; and on developing expertise in the areas of physical and mental health.