Four Institutes In City May Not Offer The Course After Delhi High Court order

Ahmedabad: Students interested in a career in physiotherapy will have to plan their academic schedules all over again. The same is
applicable to some institutes too. According to a recent Delhi High Court order, no college can offer physiotherapy courses through distance education. The decision was taken on an appeal of Indian Association of Physiotherapists.



Dr Nehal Shah, Ahmedabad convenor of the Indian Association of Physiotherapist, said, “There are around four institutes in the city that offer a distant learning course in physiotherapy. They may have to shut operations after the order.”
Following Delhi high court’s decision, UGC issued a blanket ban on all such courses across the country in May. “Our biggest argument against distance education for physiotherapy is the importance of hands-on experience that students need. A distance learning course will not require the students to fulfil a required number of hours of practice.”
The petition was filed by Indian Association of Physiotherapists in 2004 against institutes offering degree, diploma, certificate courses in physiotherapy through distance education.
An interim order was given by the court in 2007 but the final decision came few days ago in the favour of the association. The ruling stated that correspondence/distance education programmes in physiotherapy should not be conducted by the said institutions except with prior consent of the approved statutory bodies.