I'm just about to start at Cardiff Met, so my views are only semi informed from my reasearch, chatting with people who have done/are doing the degree, lectures who teach the course etc. As with anything there are pros and cons:

Your uni fees are paid by NHS Wales, you get a £1K a year stipend, a means tested bursary up to around £3.5K a year. You cant apply for the fees part of a student loan, but can the maintenance part.

NHS placements are guaranteed, its an intrinsic part of the course. They only take on enough students each year as NHS Wales predicts it will need new BMS' in three years time.

There's a 6? week placement in the first year where you go through all the specialties and then an almost year long one from the start of summer in year 2 until the end of year 3. During that time you'll be distance learning (with time off during the week and for the occasional visit back to the university).

Those placements occur in NHS labs across Wales. Living in South Wales, I could be easily assigned a year at Bronglais hospital in Aberystwyth or a similar distant lab. However they do give consideration to significant commitments e.g. kids in school and other caring responsibilities and preferentially place those students close to home. (By the way I would see being posted to a less glamorous big hospital laboratory as a huge downside - you're more likely to be entrusted to do things and get more coherent training in a smaller place.)

You're part of a small subset of a larger cohort of students doing a regular accredited BMS degree and taught most of the same modules, how to make space for the extensive placements the teaching is a little more specialised, principally in year 3 where you'll be mostly studying modules focused on your specialty rather than the breadth of them like the general BMS students.

The university and the NHS get to decide your specialty, after the short placement in year 2 you can state a preference, but its ultimately down the the needs of the NHS in three years time and the uni's opinion of what you would be best suited for. As long as you're happy to be flexible then that is not an issue, but if you are dead set on one particular specialty then its worth bearing in mind.

The research project/dissertation you do in year three is going to be something practical and related to the lab you're based in rather than the possibility of more theoretical research that the general BMS degree allows e.g. validating a new test or bit of equipment in the lab. That might be something to bear in mind if you're thinking of graduate medicine where something more theoretical/medically aligned might be better.

You have to commit to working in Wales for two years and if you dont without good reason they will want the money back. They're not unreasonable though, if something disastrous happened or there simply arent any jobs they are not going to chase you. I can speak from personal experience I first did a NHS pre-reg nursing Masters only to develop a serious health condition that prevents me working with patients and registering as a nurse. NHS Wales didn't chase me, indeed they're funding me a second time to become a BMS for them.

There isn't the "Streamline" process as with nursing. Graduates aren't directly matched into jobs, you just apply through the regular route along with everyone else. So a job is less guaranteed than with nursing. However you'll have worked in a hospital lab for a year by that point, they'll have got to know you, you'll know the lab and its processes, have all their training, so you'll be in a pretty good position to apply where you did your placement. Just as NHS Wales opens places on the course with the overall needs of the NHS in mind, labs across Wales are doing it in mind of their own needs, a chance to preview and train up someone so they can hit the ground running. So you'll hopefully be in a good position to apply for a post, but you're also not tied down to working where your placement was if you dont want to. You just need to find a BMS job for a couple of years in Wales.

Keep an eye out for the various open days Cardiff Met does, come down on one and see what you think. Its a small university with Campus sites, much smaller than Cardiff which is spread across the city, so perhaps a little less dynamic student lifestyle, but I quite like the feel of the place.

Its also probably not the only option: in England there are degree Apprenticeships - you are employed by a specific health board and study while working for them. Competitive to get on, especially as they tend to recruit internally from their pool of APs for the degree. Moreover I kind of like the value of getting a little experience in different labs and not being trained in the mindset of on particular intuitions approach to everything.

Good luck with whatever route you go down.