Università degli Studi di Perugia

Degree course in Physiotherapy [L/SNT2] D. M. 270/2004

General information

Qualification awarded

Degree in Physical Therapy

Level of qualification

First Cycle

Specific admission requirements and specific arrangements for recognition of prior learning

Students wishing to enroll in the physical therapy degree program must have a secondary school diploma or another equivalent diploma attained abroad and recognized as suitable. Students must also have an adequate basic preparation in biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics at the secondary school level as well as general culture. Access to the program is limited to a predetermined number of students and is determined on the basis of an entrance exam. 

Profile of the programme

The degree program in Physical Therapy is designed to train graduates who will work in the rehabilitation sector of the healthcare professions, performing, with professional autonomy and responsibility, activities directed at disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and functional evaluation procedures for both individuals and the general public. Graduates will have received adequate training in the basic scientific disciplines that will provide them with a fundamental understanding of the most important elements of the pathological processes which develop in childhood, adulthood, or old age, to which their rehabilitative and/or therapeutic intervention is directed. 

Qualification requirements and regulations

The program lasts 3 years and is organized in 6 semesters. Students must acquire 180 credits (ECTS credits). Training activities, organized on a semester basis, are developed by way of lectures, exercises, practical activities and seminars, clinical internships and a final exam. Each student’s training path is oriented upon admission and throughout the duration of the program by the staff of the students’ secretariat and by specially designated didactic and clinical tutors.  All of the rules regarding the organization and management of the study path for the degree program are described in the university teaching regulations (regolamento didattico), available on the faculty website.

Key learning outcomes

At the end of the degree program, Physical Therapy graduates will have acquired a broad and vast range of knowledge in both the basic sciences and the specific disciplines of the field, as well as in the fields of communication and professional management. Specifically, they will have achieved a solid cultural and scientific foundation in :

Basic, biomedical, and psychological sciences for the understanding of biological phenomena, the functional mechanisms of organs and apparatuses, motorial and psychomotorial development, physiological phenomena, in correlation with the psychological, social, and environmental dimensions of illness;

Sciences of Physical Therapy, for the identification of the preventive and rehabilitative needs of patients through the evaluation of clinical data in the motorial, psychomotorial, cognitive, and functional fields, regarding the degree and significance of symptoms; understand the underlying mechanisms of pathological processes on which to focus their rehabilitative or therapeutic intervention on patients in childhood, adulthood, or old age; develop the best therapeutic, technical and methodological approaches for the resolution of patients’/clients’ health problems; acquire the scientific` bases of functional alterations and of general specific rehabilitative methodologies in the various fields of specialization (neurology, orthopedics and traumatology, cardiovascular, critical area, infectivology, pneumology, maternal-neonatal, etc.); design and verify physiotherapeutic treatment by using objective and therapeutically effective evaluative methodologies, and all useful instruments for the resolution of the case (instrumental therapies, manual therapies, psychomotorial and occupational therapies, proposing where necessary the use of ortheses, prostheses, and auxiliaries), taking into account the indications and prescriptions of the physician;

Interdisciplinary and Medical Sciences for the understanding of physio-pathological elements applicable to the various clinical situations in relation to diagnostic parameters;

Sciences of Prevention and Health Services, to achieve the capacity to analyze health problems of individuals and/or communities and the responses of health or social welfare assistance services to the primary needs of citizens;

Statistical sciences, quantitative methods, and continuing scientific education, for the acquisition of statistical instruments useful planning and research processes, of some analytical methods to be selected and applied in the exercise of the profession, by using the best scientific evidence available in the literature in the field of Physiotherapeutic Sciences;

Sciences of Health Care Management, aimed at the organization of rehabilitation activities through the definition of priorities, appropriateness and utilization of available resources, both by delegating to collaborators the activities relative to their competence, and by working in teams, ensuring the continuity and quality of assistance.

Examination regulations, assessment and grading

Exams may be oral or written. Other possible modalities of performance evaluation (e.g. mid-term exams) are described in the individual course descriptions. In order to take the exam students must present a signed certificate attesting their satisfaction of the attendance requirement for the course. Marks are expressed on a thirty point scale and where appropriate the attribution of honors. The mark for the English exam will be expressed as pass/fail. Internship exams (three in all) have the form of a simulated trial which evaluates the student’s capacity to identify the rehabilitative aspects of a clinical case, the planning and execution of a specific rehabilitative intervention; the final mark is expressed on a thirty point scale. 

Graduation requirements

The final degree is awarded upon acquisition of 180 credits and successful completion of the final exam.

 The final degree exam which has the value of a state qualifying exam for the profession of Physical Therapist (Leg.Dec. 502/1992, art. 6, par. 3) is composed of:

a)      a practical trial during which the student must demonstrate to have acquired the theoretical-practical and technical-operational knowledge and skills of the specific professional profile;

b)     writing and discussion of an original thesis. Cf. Min Dec. 19 Feb. 2009, art. 7. The final mark is expressed on a 110 point scale.

Mode of study (full-time, part-time, e-learning, ...)

Attendance of lessons and internships is obligatory. Exams for individual courses are administered in accordance with an annual calendar published on the degree program website. 

Occupational profiles of graduates with examples

Physical Therapy graduates find job placements in the national and regional health service (see national health services contract), in private agencies accredited by the health services, clinics, rehabilitation centers and services, Assisted Living Residences, bath complexes and wellness centers, medical and poly-specialist clinics, as solo practitioners or associates of private professional firms sports and athletic clubs and associations, service cooperatives, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), public and private prevention services. 

Access to further studies

The 3-year degree meets the requirements for admission to the advanced degree program in Rehabilitative Sciences. 

Programme director or equivalent

Tabella riepilogativa regolamento

General (Regulations 2013)