Overview (2027)
Key Information
Duration
Minimum 2 years, up to a maximum of 5 years.
Location
Duration
Minimum 2 years, up to a maximum of 5 years.
Location
Annabelle Sanders, commencing student,
Master of Occupational Therapy
Acquire the professional knowledge, skills, and attributes to become an Occupational Therapist and support people who experience challenges to live a meaningful life.
The Master of Occupational Therapy will prepare you to work with people to enhance their ability to engage in the occupations (activities) they need, want, or are expected to perform and to participate in their communities. Adopting a strength-based approach, occupational therapists use a range of strategies to help those affected by disability, injury, or illness, or psychological or emotional difficulties to participate in meaningful occupations across the lifespan. You will learn how to support people to overcome barriers and to achieve their goals as a culturally safe and ethical practitioner.
Your studies include how to communicate effectively with clients from all backgrounds and work as part of an interdisciplinary team. You will develop skills in clinical reasoning and reflective, sustainable, evidence-based practice. You will undertake community-based projects and authentic experiential learning activities to enable you to develop and apply the occupational therapy process to respond to complex health issues.
This course will ensure you can work with individuals, families, and carers, in teams and with other health and inter-disciplinary professionals across a range of settings, including rural and remote areas.
This 2-year full time course is offered via blended learning methods including independent, online learning with weekly interactive webinars and peer learning. You must be available for two week-long Residential Schools in Launceston each semester and engage in interprofessional work integrated learning opportunities throughout the course, with community organisations in Tasmania. While the learning hub for Occupational Therapy is in Launceston, our delivery is designed to be place-based, so that you can complete elements of study from wherever you reside in Tasmania.
Placements are offered across each semester in Tasmania and are organised close to where you are living wherever possible. To successfully complete the requirements of the program, students are expected to live in Tasmania while studying the Master of Occupational Therapy
Graduates of the Master of Occupational Therapy will complete the degree equipped with the theoretical and practical competencies required to practice as a registered Occupational Therapist.
Guaranteed entry pathway for Tasmanian high school graduates
If you are a high school student and want to become an occupational therapist, we have a guaranteed entry pathway available via one of three undergraduate degree to the Master of Occupational Therapy. Up to 10 places are reserved for Tasmanian students who have finished their Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE) or International Baccalaureate (IB) in the last 12 months.
The pathway is available for students who complete the Bachelor of Biomedicine, Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science, or Bachelor of Psychological Science with certain conditions.
Visit the Allied Health Pathway page to find out more.
- 1 Apply core values and principles of occupational therapy to recognise people as occupational beings and use a high level of professionalism and make sound legal, ethical and socially responsible decisions in practice.
- 2 Identify and apply key theoretical conceptual practice approaches to safe quality occupational therapy practice.
- 3 Communicate effectively with people, their families, significant others, and referrers to meet their occupational needs in a culturally appropriate and collaborative manner.
- 4 Apply evidence-based practice and clinical reasoning to provide occupational therapy for individuals, communities, and populations across a range of current and future practice contexts.
- 5 Demonstrate agility, commitment to ongoing professional development and life-long, self-directed learning and critical reflective practice for working in complex and changing environments.
- 6 Ability to function as leaders and change agents for the occupational therapy profession, and actively drive system reform. through inquiry, innovation, research literacy and the translation of research into practice and practice into research.
This course includes 1000 hours of mandatory work integrated learning (WIL) and professional experience placements (PEP) at university clinics and with industry partners in each semester of the program. WIL and part-time PEP will involve placements collocated to your place of residence, where possible, while block placements may occur across Tasmania. Please note this means you are currently unable undertake the course from interstate.
Safety in Practice Compliance
This course includes compulsory Professional Experience Placements. You must meet the College of Health and Medicine's Safety in Practice Requirements before census date of the first semester of your course. The safety in practice requirements are completed separately to the course admission application.
This program is subject to accreditation by the Occupational Therapy Council.
If you have any queries about the accreditation process, please contact us for further information.
Career outcomes
Occupational Therapy professionals are in high demand with employment projected to increase in Australia 29.9% by 2034*.
Our Master of Occupational Therapy will provide you with qualifications that can lead to various job opportunities in Tasmania, Australia, and overseas.
As an occupational therapist, you can work with people across the lifespan, in a range of different industries and service models including:
- Acute Care (Hospitals)
- Aged Care
- Community Health
- Disability
- Early Intervention
- Education
- Government
- Health Promotion
- Mental Health
- Private Industry
- Rehabilitation
- Social Services
*National Skills Commission ten year projections from May 2024-May 2034.
Course structure
Students must successfully complete 200 credits of study.
This unit introduces you to an interprofessional framework and foundational concepts related to joining a regulated profession and that are shared across allied health disciplines. Within the interprofessional framework, allied health students develop an understanding of the professional contexts in…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA705 Becoming an Allied Health Professional
The unit develops your occupational perspective and prepares you to perform the various practice roles as a resilient, confident, and autonomous practitioner in the delivery of ethical, culturally responsive, sustainable, and safe practice. To consider implications for the future direction…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA716 Foundations of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science
In this professional experience placement unit, you will examine different contexts of occupation to situate the threshold concepts of occupational therapy process including client assessment, occupational analysis and occupational enablement. You will draw on the concepts and principles of occupational…
Credit Points: 12.5
This unit focuses on the occupational therapy role when working with children and youth through a family centred framework. You will develop the skills used to research, analyse, and understand health conditions, disability, and occupational needs of children, to build…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA747 Occupational Therapy with Children and Youth
This unit enhances your core threshold learning in occupational therapy process and practice, with attention to skills in task, activity, occupation analysis, grading and occupational adaptation. You will delineate the use of occupation as means and end to achieve performance…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA719 Occupational Performance, Participation and Wellbeing
This professional experience placement unit further explores concepts associated with occupation and extends your ability to determine an occupational evaluation and intervention plan to facilitate occupation across the lifespan using the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework and key theoretical approaches to…
Credit Points: 12.5
This unit enhances your core threshold learning in occupational therapy process and practice, with attention to principles of, and skills in assessing and designing enabling environments and interventions that address social, cultural, physical, built, and institutional environmental factors through universal…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA723 Occupation, Environment and Enablement
This unit explores how colonisation impacts the contemporary health situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their access to and engagement with health services . Cultural safety, self-determination, collaboration and anti-racism are central concepts within this unit. You…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for HGA746 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health and Wellbeing
This professional experience placement unit explores concepts associated with sustainable health care and service delivery through an occupational lens. Relevant frameworks, including the Sustainable Quality Improvement (SuSQI) principles are applied in practice to research, analyse and make recommendations for…
Credit Points: 12.5
This unit is the second of three interprofessional units in the program, and builds on knowledge and skills related to public health, social determinants of health, ICF, biopsychosocial practice, client-centred care, client safety and quality, and interprofessional collaborative practice. You…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA746 Developing as Allied Health Collaborators
In this unit you will explore the history of occupational therapy in mental health to contextualise this area of practice in alongside other mental health approaches. You will consider mental health from a global, national, and local perspective to examine…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA750 Occupational Therapy and Mental Health
This unit will focus on neuroscience theory and principles in relation to occupational therapy practice for neurological health conditions and disability. You will apply your knowledge of neuroanatomy, neurophysiology and neuroscience to understand the aetiology of trauma and diseases of…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA748 Occupational Therapy Neuroscience for Rehabilitation and Enablement
This unit consolidates knowledge and skills related to collaborative leadership and public health and synthesises them with skills and shared frameworks critical for allied health professionals working in community-based settings. Principles of population health and prevention and promotion strategies are…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA713 Transitioning to Community-Based Allied Health Practice
This unit examines issues of chronicity and complexity as the basis for you to examine the operational aspects of occupational therapy service delivery for differing populations across the life span using a client as centre - systems journey approach. You…
Credit Points: 12.5
View all details for CXA722 Chronicity, Complexity and Occupational Therapy Service Delivery
In this unit you will consolidate knowledge, skills and attributes to perform occupational therapy practice to a pre-entry level. You will exhibit leadership in contemporary practice by critically reflecting upon complexity, cultural safety and service provision and by…
Credit Points: 25
Entry requirements
Please note the closing time and date for receipt of first round applications is 11.59 PM (AEST) on 30 September 2026. Second round applications 11.59 PM (AEST) 31 October 2026, with the final round closing 11:59 PM (AEDT) 30 November 2026.
Admission to the Master of Occupational Therapy is competitive and achieving the minimum entry requirements does not guarantee an offer of a place in this course.
Applicants who meet the entry requirements are ranked on academic performance and offers are made based on the number of places available.
This course uses a minimum credit average GPA requirement (5.0) for prior tertiary education and equivalent ranks as part of the admission process.
To be eligible to apply you will need to fulfill the following criteria:
- A minimum of a bachelor’s degree from an Australian University or equivalent. If you are providing multiple eligible GPA’s the highest GPA will be used for ranking purposes.
- Completed the equivalent of the following subject pre-requisites within the last 10 years:
- A minimum of two units (25 CPU) of relevant systems human anatomy and physiology.
- One unit (12.5 CPU) of study focused on social perspectives in health, such as psychology or sociology, and
- One unit (12.5 CPU) study of research methods.
Completion of the subject prerequisites can occur via enrolment in UTAS units, other Australian universities or international universities that offer appropriate level units, and via Open University.
Quotas Tasmanian Quota
At least 60% of places will be offered to Tasmanians, which is defined as:
Applicants who meet the domestic admission requirements and can demonstrate they:
- Are currently resident in Tasmania at the time of application, and/or;
- Have completed TCE/IB in Tasmania
A sub-quota of up to 50% of the Tasmanian quota exists for school leaver applicants who will have completed TCE/IB in Tasmania in the year preceding entry to the University of Tasmania subject to the following conditions:
- Applicants must have completed their Certificate of Education within the last 12 months;
- Applicants will be ranked according to their ATAR;
- Applicants must be enrolled in one of the following UTAS undergraduate degrees: Bachelor of Exercise and Sports Science (53J), Bachelor of Biomedicine (M3X), Bachelor of Psychological Science (53F);
- Applicants entering this guaranteed pathway will be required to:
- study full-time within the undergraduate program,
- complete all relevant pre-requisite units during the undergraduate program, and
- Complete the undergraduate degree with a minimum GPA of 5.0
- Applicants cannot defer the commencement of study in the chosen UTAS undergraduate or subsequent postgraduate degree.
Applicants can apply for this Guaranteed Entry Pathway (after applying for one of the above mentioned bachelor degrees) by completing this form: Tasmanian School Leaver Guaranteed Entry Pathway
Quota for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander PeopleA quota of up to 15% of places will be available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People who meet all entry requirements.
Safety in Practice Requirements
This course includes compulsory Professional Experience Placements. You must meet the College of Health and Medicine's Safety in Practice Requirements before census date of the first semester of your course. The safety in practice requirements are completed separately to the course admission application.
Please note the closing time and date for receipt of first round applications is 11.59 PM (AEST) on 30 September 2026. Second round applications 11.59 PM (AEST) 31 October 2026, with the final round closing 11:59 PM (AEDT) 30 November 2026.
A quota of up to 15% of places will be offered to international students.
English Language Requirements
IELTS Academic minimum score of 7 overall and a minimum score of 7 in each individual band
OR
successfully completed a relevant tertiary qualification in English in Australia or equivalent (refer to UTAS English Language Requirements) within the previous 24 months.
All Other Requirements
Admission to the Master of Occupational Therapy is competitive and achieving the entry requirements does not guarantee an offer for this course. Applicants who meet the entry requirements are ranked on academic performance and offers are made based on the number of places available.
In addition to the English Language requirements you will need to fulfill the following criteria to be eligible to apply:
- A minimum of a bachelor’s degree is required. This course uses a minimum credit average GPA requirement of 5.0 for prior tertiary education as part of the admissions process. The GPA is determined from a bachelor degree, or a completed higher post-graduate qualification equating to at least one-year of equivalent full-time study from an Australian university (or equivalent). ). If providing multiple eligible GPAs, the highest GPA will be used for ranking purposes.
- Completed the equivalent of the following subject pre-requisites within the last 10 years:
- A minimum of two units (25 CPU) of relevant systems human anatomy and physiology,
- One unit (12.5 CPU) of study focused on social perspectives in health, such as psychology or sociology, and
- One unit (12.5 CPU) study of research methods.
Completion of the prerequisites can occur via enrolment in UTAS units, other Australian universities or international universities that offer appropriate level units, and via Open University.
This course includes compulsory Professional Experience Placements. You must meet the College of Health and Medicine’s Safety in Practice Requirements before census date of the first semester of your course. The safety in practice requirements are completed separately to the course admission application.
Applications for credit can be made in your course application. Find out more information about how to apply for a credit transfer/advanced standing at Recognition of Prior Learning.
There is no articulation from or to, any other course.
NIL
Fees & scholarships
Domestic students
Commonwealth supported places (CSP) are available for this course. For eligible domestic students, this means your fees will be subsidised by the Australian Government. You’ll only need to pay the student contribution amount for each unit you study within the course.
Commonwealth Supported Place indicative annual fee: $9,703.10
How is this calculated?
This is an estimate. The calculation is based on the average full-time enrolment for this course in 2026. All figures are indicative only for 2027. Actual tuition fees will depend on specific unit enrolment, and are subject to annual increases each year. You can find the complete fee details for each unit of study on the individual unit pages. The units for this course are found in the course structure section of this page.
These figures do not include other costs such as the Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF). For further information, please visit Scholarships, fees and costs.
HECS-HELP loans
You may be able to defer payment of the student contribution amount by accessing a HECS-HELP loan from the Government. If eligible, you’ll only have to pay your tuition fees once you start earning above a specific amount.
Further information on student loans and a CSP eligibility checker can be found at Australian Government Study Assist.
An important note on Youth Allowance and Austudy
The Department of Social Services has approved some accredited and professionally-oriented master’s courses for student payments through Youth Allowance or Austudy. This means if you enrol in one of these courses, you may be eligible for student payments. However, this is not the case for all master’s courses. Please visit Scholarships, fees and costs for further information.
International students
2027 annual international student tuition fee: $51,923 AUD
The standard year of study for this course is 100 credit points.
Indicative total tuition fee for international students: $ 106,441 AUD.
This total tuition fee is indicative only. Please visit fees and costs for further information on how this is calculated.
International students are charged the Student Services and Amenities Fee but this fee is incorporated in the annual rate. International students do not have to make any additional SSAF payments.
Domestic scholarships
For information on general scholarships available at the University of Tasmania, please visit the scholarships website.
Course year 2027
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