Results
Participants
We identified 87 Australian physiotherapists, who had
completed a PhD degree up to the end of March, 2006.
Fifty-six questionnaires were returned representing a 64%
response rate. Fourteen respondents (25%) were male and
41 (73%) were female (one did not disclose gender). Thirtyone
(55%) were aged 41–50, with 12 (21%) older than 50
years and 10 (18%) aged 31–40. Only three (5%) were aged
21–30 years. Over 50% had completed their PhD since 2000
(Figure 1). In 2006, 100 physiotherapists were enrolled in
PhDs in Australia.
The majority of participants completed their doctorate in
Victoria or New South Wales; 4 (7%) had trained overseas
and were now working in Australia (Table 1). Thirtytwo
(57%) completed the doctorate within a school of
physiotherapy. The remainder graduated from faculties of