Abstract:

Background and Aim of Study:
Offering courses at university-level schools of different educational profiles (medical-PM, physical education-PWF, and not specialising in either of them-IP) is the most characteristic element of the Polish system of education of physiotherapists. Bachelor's degree graduates may continue their education at the same university they have graduated from, at a different school of the same educational profile, or at a different school of a different educational profile. The aim of the study was to assess the level of satisfaction with studying among students of a Master's degree course who continued their education at a PM or PWF school after graduation from an IP school with a Bachelor's degree.

Materials and Methods:
502 students: 210 students who had graduated from an IP school with a Bachelor's degree and started a Master's degree course at a PM school (IP-PM) and 292 students who had graduated from an IP school with a Bachelor's degree and commenced a Master's degree course at a PWF school (IP-PWF). The approval of the Ethical Review Board of Warsaw Medical University was not necessary to conduct the voluntary and anonymous questionnaire study. The questionnaire was developed by the authors and contained 74 questions; STATISTICA 10.0 program and Mann-Whitney U test (p<0.05) were used.

Results:
The change of an educational profile had an influence on the level of satisfaction with studying. Compared to the IP-PWF students, the IP-PM students more often said that they would have chosen the course at the same school again (p<0.038) and that the course had met their expectations (p<.000). The educational profile influenced the opinions about the profile of the school which should offer such training and the duration of the course. However, it did not influence the opinions on the curricula. The change of the educational profile did not alter the level of self-assessment of professional qualifications among the study group.

Conclusions:
1. Due to the fact that most Bachelor's degree graduates in Physiotherapy continue their education on a Master's degree course at the same university or at university of the same educational profile, students should receive objective information on the possibilities regarding the change of the educational profile and on benefits of such a change for the quality of teaching at this major.
2. Candidates must be reliably informed on the benefits from studying Physiotherapy at medical universities. This concerns particularly BA graduates in Physiotherapy who have graduated from universities of physical education or other schools traditionally not specialising in teaching physiotherapists, i.e. other university-level schools (IP).
3. Regardless of the educational profile, candidates for a Master's degree course should be reliably informed on the teaching content offered at the course and encouraged to analyse the curricula of MA courses offered at universities of their interest.
4. For the improvement of the quality of teaching of physiotherapists in Poland, it seems to be justified to combine, to a greater extent than today, clinical education at medical universities with learning facilities and professionals in vocational subjects offered at universities of physical education that have been teaching physiotherapists in Poland for years.

Keywords:

Satisfaction, educational profile, change, graduates, Bachelor's degree course, Master's degree course.