"Best" Country to Study Physio?

[gcoe]

Hi Ivan

Physiobob is right that Australia has a very high level of education in physiotherapy, but NZ, Canada and the four year degrees available in Ireland and Scotland can all be good choices. The three year degrees in England are comparatively of a poorer standard. The US has a very variable standard of education with some excellent schools (as an example the University of Pittsburg) and some really crappy ones (like REALLY BAD!)- the free market approach really. Countries such as Australia, NZ, Canada and the UK have a much more regulated approach to the standards of education so there tends to be an overall higher standard of practice and perhaps less variation - although I would still choose your school carefully. As I said in England the educational system is at the other extreme: almost too tightly controlled by the NHS that has limited funding and forced the institutions to cover primarily the priorities of the NHS. Graduates have been criticized as not coming out as well rounded science-based practitioners and find it hard to meet the registration requirements in a number of countries.
Other things to consider
* It maybe quite important to think about where you want to work. The sad reality is that it is not becoming easier to take your qualification and move country - not impossible and thousands do it every year but it would pay you to really know what country you want to work in easily accepts graduates from the country you train in.
* whether you choose to do an undergraduate degree or an entry level post grad degree (Masters or Doctorate). An entry level post grad degree is where you complete an undergraduate degree in a more general but related foundation degree - such as biomedical science, exercise science, etc then use this qualification to gain entry to physiotherapy education later. The actual content of the entry level post grad degree vs an undergrad entry level degree may not be that different but in the former usually the progression is faster and more intensive and the standard may (but is not necessarily) higher. This is where the world trends in education are heading and so having a clinical doctorate or masters degree may give you a better ticket in the long term even though it is more years (and money) at university. Having just an undergrad degree may lock out of working in certain countries in the future and this is already happening in the USA where the vast majority are clinical doctorates. In canada physiotherapy is only offered at the Masters level, and in Australia there are both levels offered but three schools are now offering clinical doctorates with impeccable programmes. In Ireland and Scotand there are various arrangements.
* So I would do some homework around the particular school. For example does the University the school is in have a prestigious academic standing? (eg listed recently the top 200 universities in the world) Does the school have an excellent research program that attracts grants? And are the academics leaders in their field? While these activities are not directly related to the quality of basic education it is an indicator. A school flush in research money is a happy school and can afford to spend more on all its programmes and employ more staff.. Another factor to consider is if you know what area of physio you want to work in, does the school do a good job of education in that area? Entry level courses are generalist in nature but say you want to work in sports or musculoskeletal physio make sure the programs strong in that area. What I would do is have a look at the academic names on the website who are involved in the sports programme, have a look at their publishing history - you want to see they regularly publish in top physiotherapy/sports medicine/biomechanics journals - you are looking for a nice long string of primary research papers and grants.
* A final thing to consider is the size of the school and ratio of educators to students. A very rough way of measuring this is ask the intake size of the class and divide it by the number staff teaching staff on their website. In some schools the classes have become so big that it is hard to get adequate small group and one-to-one educational experience - something that is essential in such a practical discipline as physiotherapy.