Physiotherapy is a health care profession that focusses on the field of kinesiology. Physiotherapists support people to restore, maintain and maximise their physical mobility and overall well-being.
Profession and career prospects
What does a career as a physiotherapist entail?
As a physiotherapist you support people of all age groups to maintain their natural functions and motion sequences, or to restore them following an accident or a disease. Therefore, you identify the dysfunctions of any tissue structures throughout the human body before choosing the appropriate physiotherapeutic measures (e.g. therapeutic exercises, manual treatment techniques, functional training, instructions) to influence and normalise their function.
Sports physiotherapy tends to get the most media attention, but beyond that there are also lesser known but equally interesting fields of physiotherapy: For example, you can choose to work in prophylaxis (e.g. occupational medicine, consulting institution), specialise in therapy for children or elderly people, or pursue a scientific career in research.
Curriculum
What can you expect from the study programme?
Intially, the programme introduces the basic biomedical subjects (e.g. anatomy, physiology, or pathology). This will help you to precisely describe any relevant clinical pictures - i.e. all clinical pictures that can be treated with physiotherapy - in your future work. In the practical courses you will practise your observational skills and perception while putting your theoretical knowledge into practice.
This combination of analytic thinking and practical skills will be a key element of your future work. This constant change of perspective is one of the biggest challenges for our students. That is why you will constantly hone your skills with practical examples and during your practical training.
During your studies you will attend several lectures with students from other study programmes which will prepare you for working in an interdisciplinary team in the future. This demonstrates the importance of collaboration across all specialisations in order to think beyond the framework of your own professional background.
The practical training includes mandatory subjects (e.g. traumatology or neurology) but also gives you the opportunity to specialise by choosing optional subjects (e.g. surgery or occupational medicine) - especially in your sixth semester. Of course, you can also take the opportunity to do your practical training abroad with the Erasmus+ Programme.
You will write two Bachelor Papers during your studies. For the first paper in your fourth semester you will address a phenomenon related to physiotherapy that you have encountered in your practical training. You will develop a case study and work on it as though it were to be published in a scientific journal. Your second Bachelor Paper will focus on a relevant question for the research in the field of physiotherapy.
Practical training
What can you expect from the practical training?
The practical training for the study programme Physiotherapy places the patient at the centre of attention while putting state of the art treatments into practice and taking your personal competence into consideration. Your practical training is set over 15 weeks and is comprised of a total of 48 ECTS or 1200 hours.
Duration and extent of the practical training:
- 2nd semester / 3 ECTS
- 3rd semester / 3 ECTS
- 5th semester / 3 ECTS
- 6th semester / 3 ECTS
Take the opportunity to do your practical training abroad with the Erasmus+ Programme.
Degree Programme - an overview
| Profession Physiotherapist Degree Bachelor of Science in Health Studies (BSc) Organisational form 6 semester, full-time, 180 ECTS Language of instruction German Number of study places 26 per admission cycle | Tuition fee € 363,36 per semester + contribution to study materials € 88,00 per academic year + Austrian students´ Union fee ÖH-Beitrag Admission cycle Yearly | Contact Studien-Service-Center Office 3rd floor/room 326 Beate Tholema T +43 512 5322-76710 Send E-Mail Verena Schaffenrath-Mayrhofer T +43 512 5322-76712 Send E-Mail Barbara Harrich T +43 512 5322-76716 Send E-Mail |