The Department of Physical Therapy at Yonsei University was established in 1979 as the first 4-year Physical Therapy program in Korea. Since that time, our physical therapy program has been recognized as the most competitive and well-known program in Korea. As society develops, the number of people who require rehabilitation services is increasing rapidly. Therefore, we can't deny that the demand for physical therapists will also increase.

Physical therapists are healthcare professionals who evaluate and treat people with health problems resulting from injury or disease. Physical therapists also assess joint motion, muscle strength and endurance, function of heart and lungs, and the performance of activities required in daily living. Physical therapy students are required to take many courses such as liberal arts, basic and medical sciences, and physical therapy courses for four years. And intensive fieldwork at different teaching hospitals or rehabilitation facilities is required in the second semester of the senior year. After completion of our program, the successful candidate will receive a Bachelor of Physical Therapy degree and will be eligible to sit for the national licensure examination for physical therapist in Korea. Physical therapists practice in hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, community health centers, sports facilities, rehabilitation centers, schools or pediatric centers, and rehabilitation research institutes.

There are post-professional graduate programs (M.Sc. and Ph. D.) in the department of physical therapy at Yonsei University to meet the desire for educational advancement. As of the year 2000, about 17% of our graduates had finished their master's degree program or were in the enrollment stage of the M.Sc. degree program or higher. Twenty-eight of our graduates are teaching physical therapy at either junior colleges or universities in Korea and two of our graduates are teaching physical therapy as professors in the U.S.A. Our physical therapy program is designed to meet the requirements for practice in the USA. Almost one hundred Yonsei graduates are working as licensed physical therapists in the States.