Evaluation of physical therapy courses from 2004 to 2013

Abstract

This study aimed to evaluate the performance of Brazilian physical therapy courses regarding the concepts obtained in the National Exam for the Assessment of Student Performance (ENADE) from 2004 to 2013, checking it in courses at public and private educational institutions, and the correlation between ENADE score and Course Preliminary Concept (CPC). Cross-sectional quantitative study of documentary basis, conducted with a sample of 103 physical therapy courses that participated in the ENADE assessments conducted from 2004 to 2013. The analysis consisted in evaluating ENADE and CPC concepts, considering their performance ratings over the years. There was an improvement in the ENADE and CPC concepts in the sample (p<0.05). The percentage of courses with insufficient results in ENADE decreased from 26.2% in 2004 to 17.5% in 2013, and 38.8% of the educational institutions obtained concepts above the minimum criterion in 2013, while in 2004 this percentage corresponded to 21.4 %. In all ENADE editions, public educational institutions presented better performance than private ones. There was an advance in the ENADE and CPC of physical therapy courses during the investigated period, with a better performance of public institutions compared with private. However, the persistence of high proportion of poor results or that only complied the minimum criterion highlights the importance of the discussion about the training quality of physical therapy bachelor in the country.