In my view physiotherapy education requires a major shake up. How did the csp allow 2 years 'masters' courses to start in the first place? I completed a four year bachelors degree; does this mean that a two year masters graduate is more qualified than I am? What are the general public expected to think when choosing a physio - more informed people may perceive that a 'masters' physio would be better trained and more clinically proficient than a mere bachelors physio. In my opinion thats what having a masters qualification should mean.

My experience of candidates from these new programmes is that everything is crammed into two years instead of three or four. The result is we have new 'masters' physios entering the job market with a more narrow knowledge and skills base than bachelor physios qualifying at the same time! I am involved in mentoring physios on a daily basis so I feel that I am qualified to comment on this.

In my opinion physiotherapy masters programmes and qualifications should only be open to bachelors qualified physiotherapists with several years of experience under their belts. Anything else merely devalues the MSc title and devalues our professsion. Can you ever imagine medical schools opening up two or three year degree programmes for graduates with no medical training or experience and at the end of the programme giving them a qualification that is ranked higher than graduates from a five or six year programme? I think not! Furthermore would you be happy having treatment from a doctor thus qualified?

Two year physio masters programmes should never have been allowed in the first instance and I supect they have been brought in to provide physio training "on the cheap". Physio schools have an obligation to turn out clinically proficient physios capable of working independently. Of course our learning doesent stop on qualification but minimum standards have to be set and maintained. Our universities and the CSP have manifestly failed to do so.

My solution to the above is to make all my patients aware of the disparity in training and the now meaningless terms BSc Physiotherapy and MSc Physiotherapy. Having said all the above the greatest leveller here is clinical proficiency - patients will migrate to physios who help them the most. In my experience patients are generally not to concerned or informed about the level of training I have undertaken- they only care about wether they are getting better or not!