Impact of Faculty and Programmatic Resources on the Proportion of Academic Doctoral Degrees in Professional Physical Therapist Education Programs

Abstract

Objective The Commission on Accreditation in Physical Therapy Education has introduced a requirement that 50% of core faculty members in a physical therapist education program have an academic doctoral degree, which many programs are not currently meeting. Competition between programs for prestige and resources may explain the discrepancy of academic achievement among faculty despite accreditation standards. The purpose of this study was to identify faculty and program characteristics that are predictive of programs having a higher percentage of faculty with academic doctoral degrees. Methods Yearly accreditation data from 231 programs for a 10-year period were used in a fixed-effects panel analysis. Results For a 1 percentage point increase in the number of core faculty members, a program can expect a decline in academic doctoral degrees by 14% with all other variables held constant. For a 1% increase in either reported total cost or expenses per student, a program could expect a 7% decline in academic doctoral degrees with all other variables held constant. Programs that have been accredited for a longer period of time could expect to have proportionately more faculty members with academic doctoral degrees. Conclusions Programs may be increasing their core faculty size to allow faculty with academic doctoral degrees to focus on scholarly productivity. The percentage of faculty with academic doctoral degrees declines as programs increase tuition and expenditures, but this may be due to programs’ tendency to stratify individuals (including part-time core faculty) into teaching- and research-focused efforts to maximize their research prowess and status. Impact This study illuminates existing relationships between physical therapist faculty staffing, time spent in research versus teaching, and program finances. The results of this study should be used to inform higher education policy initiatives aimed to lower competitive pressures and the costs of professional education.

Impacts of educational debt on physical therapist employment trends

“…We decided to run both: (1) a xed effects and (2) a random effects model in a similar manner to prior studies that have used retrospective panel data. 39,40 Fixed and random effects models are bene cial for analyzing panel data because they include both within-and between-effects, 41 as individuals' data is included over time. Another reason for our choice of running both xed effects and random effects models is that they allow for unbalanced data.…”

Impacts of educational debt on physical therapist employment trends

“…Our panel of longitudinal data allowed us to implement a richer analysis than using a cross-section of data from any one year. We decided to run both: (1) a fixed effects and (2) a random effects model in a similar manner to prior studies that have used retrospective panel data [ 39 , 40 ]. Fixed and random effects models are beneficial for analyzing panel data because they include both within- and between- effects [ 41 ], as individuals’ data is included over time.…”

Developing Self-Efficacy in Doctoral Students for Treating Patients with Hand Therapy

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