NIU freshmen majoring in physical therapy will need to complete 142 credit hours in order to obtain a degree due to changes effective next fall in required biology courses.

This catalogue change was approved by the Council on Instruction last Thursday after much discussion concerning the additional hours and the possible development of a physical therapy master’s degree program.

Previously, physical therapy students were required to take Biology 200. Now, students need to take Biology 205, 208 and 209 for 12 credit hours to replace the four-hour 200 course, said physical therapy coordinator Judith Anderson.

When the new biology sequence was approved, the physical therapy department requested two options from the biological sciences department. One would be to give students a proficiency test for BIOS 205, and the other would be to waive students from 205 who had two years of upper-level biology in high school.

owever, biology department representatives earlier disapproved of the options because they said 205 is an important prerequisite for 208 and 209.

The change to 142 credit hours brings the physical therapy department one step closer to the development of a master’s level degree program. “The profession has been pushing for a master’s entry level. A master’s degree program would be more beneficial to students in physical therapy,” Anderson said.

owever, Anderson said at the national level some problems have been slowing down the master’s program. “Some states do not want to become a master’s level program. External politics are slowing us down,” she said.

Donna Chambers, senior secretary at the American Physical Therapy Association, did not know of any political setbacks. However, she said that 61 of their accredited members will make the transition to the master’s level by 1990. She also said 23 members were unsure if they would make the change, and three would not change.

If developed at NIU, the master’s program would be an additional 60 to 70 credit hours of work after the completion of an undergraduate program of 124 hours.