Objectives: 

The Bologna Declaration (1999) aim was to strengthen relationships among countries of the European Union, mainly through education. Uniform curricula were proposed as a tool to facilitate European integration and free movement of students and teachers. In Spain, a law (RD1393/2007) gave autonomy to the different universities to design the curricular structure of each degree on the principles of Bologna. Our study aims to analyze whether the courseload of Physiology, offered in the curriculum of Physical Therapy Degree (PTD), is homogeneous in three Spanish autonomic communities.

Materials: 

We analyzed the curricula of PTD in 26 universities located in Catalonia, Community of Madrid and Valencian Community. We studied the weighted value for each subject with respect to the total courseload, and the teaching load (in ECTS) of Physiology offered by every university. Teaching load and specific weight between public and private universities were compared. A Student t-test was used for all comparisons.

Results: 

In the 26 PTD curricula analyzed, we found that the average weight in Physiology was 5.7%± 0.02, corresponding to a course load of 13.8 ± 6.06 ECTS. Only 38.5% of the universities had a teaching load higher than average, with values between 18-32 ECTS. There were no differences in ECTS between public and private universities. However, a high variability in the number of ECTS among universities was observed, being the highest value 32 and 6 the lowest. When ECTS (Physiology) were studied by region, we only found differences in the Valencian Community (16 ± 3.46 and 7.5 ± 2.12 private vs. public, p < 0.05).

Conclusions: 

We found that the number of Physiology ECTS in the curriculum of PTD varies among regions, universities and whether they are public or private. Thus, in our opinion, and on the basis of the heterogeneity found, the curricular goals of unification, intended to establish uniformity in the degree of Physical Therapy, have not been achieved in these communities.