Blend theory and practice to become a safe and competent midwifery practitioner.
Year of entry: 2025/26
B721
Y50
3 years full-time
Prepare for a challenging and rewarding professional career as a midwife.
Our aim is to educate midwifery graduates who will positively impact women, birthing people, families and communities throughout their professional lives.
We will equip you to become a skilled, knowledgeable and compassionate midwife, able to provide excellent care for women, birthing people, newborn infants and families. The course has learning through research and enquiry at its centre, and is focused on contemporary midwifery and maternity care.
The course provides an equal balance of theory and practice learning which will enable you to develop comprehensive interpersonal skills to build and sustain relationships, working in partnership with women, birthing people and families. You will also work effectively within interdisciplinary and multi agency care teams.
Through varied and stimulating academic and practice learning modules you will gain the knowledge, skills and experience to provide safe, universal and advanced midwifery care.
We keep our cohorts small, meaning you’ll have all the peer and academic support you need to progress through your course.
After completing this degree, you'll be eligible to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the professional regulatory body for nurses and midwives in the UK.
Our current midwifery courses are fully-accredited with the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative with Sustainability (Gold Award). The award sets standards for facilitating effective parent-baby relationships and choices regarding infant feeding.
Guardian University Guide 2025
Guardian University Guide 2025
Right from the start of the course you’ll begin to provide universal, safe, respectful, empowering and equitable midwifery care to women, birthing people, their families and newborn infants. You’ll work with a variety of people across a range of community and hospital settings during your practice learning, giving you the opportunity to observe and participate in midwifery practices with different philosophies.
The course is divided equally into theory and practice. You’ll work with our practice partners across the region throughout your course, experiencing a wide range of localities and practice settings. You’ll be supported and supervised by clinical midwives, known as Practice Assessors and Practice Supervisors, in all of your placements.
You’ll have the opportunity to put your knowledge into action during a number of placements in a variety of settings across the region. Our dedicated practice learning team will work with you every step of the way to make sure you get the most out of these experiences.
At the beginning of your course, you’ll study what to expect when delivering universal midwifery care during pregnancy, labour, birth and the postnatal period. We focus on making sure you know how to provide high quality, evidence-based universal care for all women and families.
Your core modules will form the foundation of your midwifery knowledge. You'll explore topics in the classroom and apply your learning in practice.
In addition to the above you will also need to complete our online Academic Integrity module.
This module covers some of the essential skills and knowledge which will help you to study independently and produce work of a high academic standard which is vital for success at York.
This module will:
In Year 2, you’ll study how to facilitate maternal and neonatal health where additional care needs are required by women, birthing people and families. You’ll also learn more about the importance of evidence-based practice, reflective practice and the role of the midwife in public health. You'll continue to refine your skills in practice. At the end of Year 2 there will also be the opportunity to undertake a national or international elective placement.
You’ll focus on preparing to work as a qualified midwife throughout your final year. You’ll look at how to deal with emergency situations and consider service improvement and leadership skills.
Your core modules will continue to build and consolidate your knowledge and skills in both theory and practice. You will also investigate a chosen midwifery topic in depth in an extended piece of writing.
Our modules may change to reflect the latest academic thinking and expertise of our staff, and in line with Department/School academic planning.
Every course at York has been designed to provide clear and ambitious learning outcomes. These learning outcomes give you an understanding of what you will be able to do at the end of the course. We develop each course by designing modules that grow your abilities towards the learning outcomes and help you to explain what you can offer to employers. Find out more about our approach to teaching and learning.
One of the best things about Midwifery at York is that, within a few weeks, you are out on placement putting theory into practice. You’ll be checking blood pressure, learning how to work out a baby’s positions in the uterus and learning how to listen to the fetal heart. Who knows, you could even be at your first birth!Sam, BA Midwifery Practice
| UK (home) | International and EU |
|---|---|
| £9,250 | £31,100 |
Fees for students starting in the 2025/26 academic year.
The level of fee that you will be asked to pay depends on whether you're classed as a UK (home) or international student. Check your fee status.
For more information about tuition fees, any reduced fees for study abroad and work placement years, scholarships, tuition fee loans, maintenance loans and living costs see undergraduate fees and funding.
You'll have to meet the costs of uniform replacement or missed occupational health appointments. You'll also have to pay for Professional Association Fees (Indemnity) which is covered in the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) or Unison Student Membership which is approximately £30.
You may also have to meet costs related to your elective placement, depending on what you choose to do.
Uniform provision, Occupational Health Screening, and Disclosure and Barring Service checks are included in your fees.
We'll confirm more funding opportunities for students joining us in 2025/26 throughout the year.
Eligible midwifery students receive a payment of at least £5,000 a year (gov.uk) to support their academic studies. This is on top of the standard government support for tuition fees and living costs and doesn't need to be paid back.
The Department of Health Sciences will provide eligible ‘International’ Midwifery & Nursing students with a £1,000 annual scholarship to help with associated travel costs as they are not eligible for assistance through the NHS Learning Support Fund. As this is a non-competitive scholarship (i.e. do not need to apply), eligible students will be notified during the new semester of their award.
You can use our living costs guide to help plan your budget. It covers additional costs that are not included in your tuition fee such as expenses for accommodation and study materials.
Our teaching, learning and student experience is outstanding, recognised by a Gold rating from the Office for Students in the 2023 national assessment (Teaching Excellence Framework).
You'll mainly work with your cohort in seminars and lectures. There's also an opportunity to work with students in other years in theory and practice.
In your first year, you can expect:
| Theory sessions | 40 hours per week Theory weeks only |
|---|---|
| Placement | 40 hours per week Practice weeks only |
| Supervision | 1 hour per semester |
These figures are representative of a typical week. Your contact hours will vary throughout the year due to your module choices, non-compulsory classes, exam periods and changes to scheduled activities.
Outside your timetabled hours, you'll study independently. This may include preparation for classes, follow-up work, wider reading, practice completion of assessment tasks, or revision.
In the UK, full-time students are expected to spend 1,200 hours a year learning. That's about 40 hours of classes and independent study each week during semesters. Everyone learns at a different rate, so the number of hours you spend on independent study will be different to other students on your course.
Our beautiful green campus offers a student-friendly setting in which to live and study, within easy reach of the action in the city centre. It's easy to get around - everything is within walking or pedalling distance, or you can use the fast and frequent bus service. Take a campus tour.
You'll leave York with a thorough understanding of how to succeed as a registered midwifery practitioner, and a range of transferable skills that will help you no matter what career path you decide to follow.
| Typical offer | |
|---|---|
| A levels | ABB including a science subject. We will accept the following A level subjects as a science: Biology, Chemistry, Further Mathematics, Mathematics, Physical Education, Physics, Psychology and Statistics. We do not accept General Studies or Critical Thinking |
| Access to Higher Education Diploma | 30 credits at Distinction and 15 level 3 credits at merit or higher. At least 12 credits should be in science subjects. |
| BTEC National Extended Diploma | DDM including sufficient science-related units. Please note that the BTEC National Extended Diploma in Health and Social Care is not accepted unless taken in conjunction with another approved science qualification. Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your combination of qualifications. |
| Cambridge Pre-U | D3, M2, M2 including a science. |
| European Baccalaureate | 75% overall average including 8 in a science. |
| International Baccalaureate | 34 including 6 in one science at Higher Level |
| T levels | We will consider a range of T Level qualifications for entry. Please visit our dedicated T Levels page for a full list of accepted T Levels. |
| Scottish Highers / Advanced Highers | Advanced Highers - B in a Science/Mathematics plus Scottish Highers - BBBC We may also be able to consider three Advanced Highers or a combination of Highers and Advanced Highers, where an applicant does not meet the grade requirement through Highers alone. Please contact us to discuss your qualifications. |
| Other qualifications | Other qualifications are accepted by the University. Please contact the department for more information. |
| Other international qualifications | Equivalent qualifications from your country |
You should also hold GCSE English Language, Maths and Science at Grade 4 (C) or above, or equivalent.
Meeting the following additional criteria may qualify you for an alternative offer.
| Criteria | Adjustment |
|---|---|
| Widening participation | If you successfully complete one of the following programmes, you may be eligible for an alternative offer up to two A level grades (or equivalent) below our typical offer: Black Access Programme, Next Step York, Realising Opportunities. More about widening participation. |
| Contextual offers | If you have experience of local authority care or live in an area with low progression to university, you may be eligible for an alternative offer up to one A level grade (or equivalent) below our typical offer. More about contextual offers. |
| EPQ | If you achieve C or higher at EPQ, you may be eligible for an alternative offer up to one A level grade (or equivalent) below our typical offer. |
| Core Maths | If you achieve B or higher in Core Maths, you may be eligible for an alternative offer up to one A level grade (or equivalent) below our typical offer. |
If English isn't your first language you may need to provide evidence of your English language ability. We accept the following qualifications:
| Minimum requirement | |
|---|---|
| IELTS (Academic) | 7.0, with a minimum of 7.0 in each component |
| GCSE/IGCSE/O level English Language (as a first or second language) | Grade C / Grade 4 |
For more information see our undergraduate English language requirements.
You may be eligible for one of our pre-sessional English language courses. These courses will provide you with the level of English needed to meet the conditions of your offer.
The length of course you need to take depends on your current English language test scores and how much you need to improve to reach our English language requirements.
After you've accepted your offer to study at York, we'll confirm which pre-sessional course you should apply to via You@York.
Midwifery
Nursing
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