Starting November 1, 2014, the Federationof State Boards of Physical Therapy (FSBPT) will eliminate the distinctionbetween General Education and Professional Education. This is a modification of the InterpretiveGuidelines for the FSBPT Coursework Tool (CWT).
The Coursework Tool accepted by allmember boards to evaluate whether a foreign educated PT or PTA’s education issubstantially equivalent to a US PT or PTA education.
FSBPT’s Board issued a comprehensivenotice letting the public know that the Board “did not approve this changelightly”. The Board explained that theelimination of the distinction had been considered for several years and hadbeen recommended by the FSBPT’s Foreign Educated Standards Committee. Notably, within US education and within thecriteria developed by the Commissionon Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education (CAPTE), there is no suchterm as general education. The newpolicy does not to eliminate the required courses within General Education, butit does eliminate the artificial distinction between Professional Education andGeneral Education.
For foreign-educated PTs, this changecould be helpful. Presently the CWTrequires 150 total credits, which is comparable to what is needed for a USpost-graduate degree. In manyinternational PT programs these general courses are embedded into the PTprofessional courses, not completed ahead of entry. The current model would notallow the evaluator to give credit as a general course since it was taken aspart of their professional coursework.
Previously, some foreign-educated PTseducation was found to be incomparable to a US-educated because of thedistinction between Professional Education and General Education. This resulted in some foreign-educated PTshaving to take “make-up” classes, usually from CLEP. As the Board correctly points out, “to ask an applicant to complete aprerequisite after completing professional curriculum seems counterintuitive,and sets up an unreasonable barrier to licensure.”