Allied health doctoral program gains committee approval

GREENVILLE, N.C.   (Oct. 15, 2004)   —   A proposal to establish a doctor of physical therapy program in the School of Allied Health Sciences at East Carolina University was unanimously approved Oct. 14 by the University of North Carolina Office of the President’s Graduate Deans Committee. 

The unanimous recommendation will be submitted as a report and presented for approval at the UNC Board of Governors meeting in November.

Dr. Denis Brunt, professor and chairman of the Department of Physical Therapy, and Dr. Walter Jenkins, associate professor and associate chairman, made a presentation to the committee about the program. 

If approved by the full board, the doctoral program will accept its first class of students in May.

The proposed program is a three-year, 106-semester-hour program that will include 32 weeks of clinical education. In November 2003, the Board of Governors approved ECU’’s request to plan the doctoral program. 

The Department of Physical Therapy and the undergraduate program at ECU began in 1970. It graduated its first students in 1972 and has since grown from three faculty members to 11. The department transitioned to a master’s program and admitted its first graduate students in 1996.

Graduates are recognized for their advanced preparation and professional abilities in musculoskeletal, neuromuscular, cardiopulmonary and integumentary systems, according to the department Web site, www.ecu.edu/pt.