Setting a Realistic Tuition for Physical Therapist Education Programs Based on Expected Income: A Survey of Physical Therapy Directors

Journal of Physical Therapy Education, Fall 2004 by Redman-Bentley, Donna

RESULTS

Demographics

Data were collected from clinical facilities in 8 of the 10 western states. The majority of the responses were from facilities in California (101/126), which represented only 35.1% of the facilities in California (101/288). The two states that did not respond were Alaska and Idaho, where only 3 and 2 facilities were surveyed respectively. The highest response rates per state came from Colorado (62.5%), Washington (50%), and Utah (42.9%).

The survey asked directors to identify whether their facility is located in an urban or rural community to provide a comparison of salaries, benefits, and positions by geographical setting. Most of the 126 responses were from facilities in an urban setting (87.8%). Caution should be used when reviewing the findings in regard to rural clinical facilities in this report, as the amount of data collected for rural facilities is small (12.2%), and is therefore not representative of the larger population of rural facililies. Those respondents indicating an urban setting were asked to select the size of the population served from four ranges. The breakdown of responses (n=101) follows: population of greater than 200,001 (55.4%); population 50,000-100,000 (20.8%); population 100,001-150,000 (14.9%); and population 150,001-200,000 (8.9%).

Directors were asked to identify their facility's primary function and the type of services offered from a list of five options. Many facilities listed more than one primary function, resulting in total percent of responses greater than 100. The data provide a profile of the responding facilities and are useful in comparing physical therapist salaries and staffing levels by type and function of facility. The most frequent functions were "outpatient clinic" (55.6%) and "acute care" (50.8%), resulting in the salary, benefits, services, and staffing level data largely reflecting information from these two settings. Table 2 shows the primary type of facility and services offered for all facilities as well as for those in urban and rural areas.

The largest number of responses were from California faculties (n=101). The majority of responses were from facilities in an urban setting (87.8%) with the primary function being on outpatient (55.6%) and acute care (50.8%).

Realistic Tuition

A main objective of the survey was to gather information to assist in planning the tuition amount for a DPT program. A question was included on the survey that asked the clinical department directors what they felt, based on their experience, would be a realistic annual tuition rate for a private, 3-year, professional doctoral program. Respondents selected from four tuition ranges. These ranges were constructed by researching current tuition rates of peer private programs. Responses (n=103) indicate that 43.7% consider an annual tuition between $18,001-21,999 realistic. One third (33.0%) of the respondents consider an annual tuition between $15,000-18,000 realistic. The remaining respondents either selected the range $22,000-25,999 as a realistic tuition rate (17.5%) or $26,000-27,000 (5.8%). Figure 1 demonstrates the percentage of responses for each range of annual tuition.