The Doctor of Physiotherapy (2024)

Our new postgraduate physiotherapy degree is a three-year qualification that provides advanced clinical training, allowing our graduates to enter the industry with extensive skills and the professional confidence to better treat patients.

The new degree will replace the Master of Physiotherapy.

There are no prerequisite knowledge requirements. When applying for the Master of Physiotherapy, applicants had to meet five separate criteria: these are no longer required.

To be eligible to apply for the Doctor of Physiotherapy (DPT), you need an undergraduate degree and a minimum Weighted Average Mark (WAM) of 70 over 100 (credit average).

For more details regarding admission criteria, visit the course page

The DPT involves a better model of clinical experience, enabling better integration and ongoing development of theoretical knowledge, clinical skills, and clinical reasoning.

The new curriculum breaks down the barriers and integrate the clinical areas of physiotherapy practice using a programmatic assessment of learning approach and larger units of study.

Students will develop current and future focused competencies of beginning health practitioners within the three-year, 144 credit-point program structure.

Our Doctor of Physiotherapy is a three-year extended master’s degree.

This professional master’s degree includes a high level of hands-on training, evidence-based practice, and requires advanced and integrated understanding of a complex body of knowledge in the field; you will undertake clinical placements at urban public and private clinics and rural health settings.

While this is not a research degree, as a level 9 program at Australian Qualification Framework (AQF-9), it requires graduates to gain the “knowledge of research principles and methods applicable to the discipline and its professional Practice” and “plan and execute a substantial research based project, capstone experience and/or professionally focused project”.  

Currently the program is going under accreditation process. Once accredited, graduates will be eligible for registration with the Australian Physiotherapy Council as a physiotherapist.

No, the Master of Physiotherapy will no longer be offered at the University of Sydney and the final intake is in 2023. The new degree will become our main postgraduate physiotherapy offering from 2024.

The structure of Doctor of Physiotherapy is very different from our current Master of Physiotherapy. If you transfer to the DPT, it is highly possible that you need to start the degree from the first year which we do not recommend. Therefore, DPT is only for new starters.

The degree is open for applications later this year for a first intake in 2024. Visit the course page for timelines for domestic and international applicants.