The Commission Instaladora (CI) of the Order met with the Direction of the CCISP - Coordinating Council of Higher Polytechnic Institutes and the APESP - Associação Portuguesa do Ensino Superior Privado, representative structures of the Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (IES) of the public sector and of the private and cooperative sector, respectively. The meetings with CCISP took place on 30th May and 30th July and the meeting with APESP was held on 30th June.
In addition to the presentation of greetings, matters of mutual interest were addressed in both meetings:
1 - Collaboration in order to facilitate the procedures for enrolling new graduates in the Order;
2 - The promotion of the quality of Physiotherapy teaching, at degree level, with the Order's IC presenting the benchmark of convergence with international standards;
3 - The perspectives of development of specialties within the profession and the combination of offers in terms of post-graduate training and obtaining higher academic degrees.
All meetings concluded that there was a need for strategic and complementary cooperation, while recognising the different nature of the organisations involved.
Complementing this approach at the level of organisations representing the teaching sector, the IC has maintained a direct formal dialogue with the Directors of Higher Education Institutions with initial training in physiotherapy and with the Directors/Coordinators of the respective courses, which has proven to be fruitful.
In contact with the HEIs, the IC of the Order has emphasized the respect for the autonomy of the respective pedagogical and scientific bodies, and valued the role of the HEIs in terms of professional development. In this context, it should be noted that the convergence benchmark for the initial training of physiotherapists adopted by the IC of the Order is based on a proposal from a wide range of teachers.
The Order's IC has also been developing contacts with the A3ES - Agency for Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education, awaiting the scheduling of a meeting to present greetings to the new Board of Directors of that entity.
Note - Picture of the OF / APESP meeting: António Almeida Dias, José João Mendes, José Manuel Silva and Miguel Copetto and, from the Installing Committee side, Isabel Souza Guerra, António Lopes and Nuno Cordeiro