TL;DR: BS Physical Therapy is a four-year, eight-semester degree governed by CHED Memorandum Order No. 55, series of 2017. It requires at least 168 units and 1,500 hours of internship, of which at least 1,200 hours are clinical. Yes, there is a PRC board exam — the Physical Therapist Licensure Examination, given under Republic Act No. 5680 — and passing it lets you use the initials PTRP. Occupational therapy, which used to share the same board, was separated out by Republic Act No. 11241 in 2019.
Physical therapy is one of the Philippine health programmes where the rules are unusually specific. CHED does not just say "four years"; it sets the unit load, the number of internship hours, and how those hours have to be split between clinical and non-clinical work. If you are deciding whether to take the course, that detail matters more than a school's marketing page, because it tells you exactly what your fourth year will look like.
This guide covers what the governing CHED order actually prescribes, whether a licensure exam exists (it does), and what the degree is designed to prepare you for.
What Governs BS Physical Therapy
The programme runs under CHED Memorandum Order No. 55, series of 2017, "Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy (BSPT) Education," adopted by virtue of Commission en Banc Resolution No. 231-2017 dated 28 March 2017. It replaced the older joint PT/OT standards with an outcomes-based framework, in line with CMO No. 46, series of 2012.
The order defines the degree name — "Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy" — and states plainly that it is a four-year programme of general education and professional courses that includes an internship in CHED-accredited affiliation centres.
One thing worth understanding early: CHED's outcomes-based approach deliberately gives schools room to design their own courses. The CMO prescribes minimum outcomes, minimum units and minimum internship hours; it does not dictate a fixed subject list every school must copy. So two BSPT curricula can look different on paper and both be compliant. What they cannot differ on are the floors below.
The Structure: Years, Units, Hours
CMO 55 sets these minimum curricular requirements:
| Requirement | What the CMO prescribes |
|---|---|
| Length | Four years, or eight full semesters, including internship |
| Load | 21 units per semester, including PE and NSTP |
| Annual load | At least 42 units per school year |
| Total units | A minimum of 168 units, including general education, PE, NSTP and internship |
| Internship | 1,500 hours total |
| Clinical portion | At least 1,200 hours of clinical experience |
| Non-clinical portion | A minimum of 160 and a maximum of 300 hours |
The general education component follows the CHED-prescribed GE curriculum: Understanding the Self, Readings in Philippine History, The Contemporary World, Mathematics in the Modern World, Purposive Communication, Art Appreciation, Science Technology and Society, Ethics, plus electives, PE and NSTP.
Beyond that, the professional courses are built around the twelve programme outcomes the CMO lists — among them applying knowledge of physical, social, health and natural sciences to practice; conducting comprehensive examination, evaluation and assessment across the lifespan; and planning and implementing interventions across a broad continuum of care.
The Internship Is the Part People Underestimate
The 1,500-hour internship is where BSPT stops resembling a normal undergraduate degree. Under CMO 55, students are assigned to different CHED-accredited affiliation centres serving different patient populations. The order names the spread it expects: neurological, musculoskeletal, cardiopulmonary, paediatric, geriatric, well populations, and community-based rehabilitation.
The remaining 160 to 300 hours are what the CMO calls non-clinical rotation — training in the other roles a physical therapist is expected to fill, such as teaching, management and advocacy. Institutions can run purely clinical rotations, purely non-clinical ones, or a mix, as long as the hours allotted to each are clearly specified.
That last clause is worth using when you compare schools. Ask an admissions office how their internship hours are split and which affiliation centres they have. A programme with weak affiliations gives you a thinner caseload, and caseload variety is what the CMO is trying to guarantee.
Is There a Board Exam? Yes
Graduates must pass the Physical Therapist Licensure Examination administered by the Professional Regulation Commission before they can practise. This is not optional and it is not a formality — the degree alone does not authorise practice.
The legal basis is Republic Act No. 5680 (1969), which created the Board of Examiners for Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists. Under that law:
- The examination consists of written and practical components, with the scope determined by the Board taking into account the teaching plans of Philippine schools.
- Applicants must be Filipino citizens, or foreigners from a country that extends reciprocity to Filipino therapists.
- Applicants must hold a physical therapy degree from a government-recognised school and have completed supervised clinical training. RA 5680 sets a minimum of nine months of internship in an adequate physical therapy department of a hospital or clinic; CHED's current curriculum order raises that to the 1,500-hour structure described above.
- Passers may add the initials PTRP — Physical Therapist Registered, Philippines — after their name.
For the current application requirements, fees, subject groupings and schedule, see our physical therapist licensure exam guide and the general PRC board exam requirements explainer. Exam dates and fees are set by PRC each cycle and change, so confirm them on the PRC website rather than from any third-party page, including ours.
One legal wrinkle worth knowing
Physical therapy and occupational therapy were regulated as a pair for fifty years. That ended for OT: Republic Act No. 11241, the Philippine Occupational Therapy Law of 2018 (approved 11 March 2019), created a separate Professional Regulatory Board of Occupational Therapy, with its own examination and its own scope of practice.
Physical therapy did not get an equivalent standalone law at the same time. The Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation has reported that the House of Representatives voted to amend the law to recognise physical therapy as a separate and distinct discipline with its own Professional Regulatory Board of Physical Therapy. If you are relying on the statute for anything consequential — foreign registration, a legal filing, a school's accreditation claim — check the PRC's own posted law for the profession rather than assuming the position has changed.
What BSPT Graduates Actually Do
CMO 55 lists the roles the programme is meant to produce:
- Entry-level general clinical practitioner — the default path, in hospitals, rehabilitation centres and clinics
- Educator, applying basic teaching-learning principles
- Manager of one's own practice
- Consumer of research, meaning someone who can read and apply evidence rather than merely follow protocol
- Advocate for physical therapy practice and functional movement for health
- Community-based therapist
The order also frames the programme goals around patient care across settings and populations, education of individuals and groups, administration and management of physical therapy programmes including private practice and home health care, health promotion, community service, and research.
That list explains an otherwise odd design choice. The non-clinical internship hours are not filler. CHED built them in because the profession's own standards expect graduates to teach, manage a practice, and work in communities, and none of those skills develop from bedside rotations alone.
Physical therapy is also one of the Philippine degrees with a well-established overseas track, which is part of why enrolment holds up. Requirements for practising abroad are set by each destination's regulator, not by PRC or CHED, and they change; treat any blog claim about foreign licensure — again including ours — as a starting point for checking the actual regulator.
Choosing a School
A few checks that are more useful than rankings:
- Confirm the programme is CHED-recognised. A BSPT graduate from an unrecognised programme has an admission problem at PRC, not just a prestige problem. Our guides on CHED-accredited schools and verifying school legitimacy walk through how to check.
- Ask about affiliation centres by name. The CMO requires CHED-accredited centres and a variety of caseloads. Schools that have them will tell you.
- Ask how the 1,500 hours are split. The CMO requires schools to specify this. If nobody can answer, that itself is information.
- Ask about board performance over several cycles, not one. Single-cycle passing rates on small cohorts swing hard and mean very little.
For a wider view of which health and science programmes carry licensure requirements, see our list of courses with board exams. If you are still at senior high school and choosing a track, the STEM strand guide covers the usual preparation route.
What This Guide Deliberately Does Not Say
There is no national tuition figure for BS Physical Therapy in this article, and that is intentional. Tuition is set per school and revised most years; a number pulled from a directory would be wrong for most readers by the time they enrolled. The same applies to exam fees and dates — PRC sets those per cycle. Get both from the primary source: the school's admissions office and prc.gov.ph.
Sources
- CHED Memorandum Order No. 55, series of 2017 — Policies, Standards and Guidelines for the Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy (BSPT) Education — Commission on Higher Education (programme description, curriculum minimums, internship hours, programme outcomes and graduate roles)
- Republic Act No. 5680 — An Act Creating the Board of Examiners for Physical Therapists and Occupational Therapists — LawPhil / Arellano Law Foundation (examination requirement, scope, qualifications, PTRP initials)
- Republic Act No. 11241 — The Philippine Occupational Therapy Law of 2018 — LawPhil (separation of occupational therapy regulation)
- Philippines to regulate physical therapy as separate discipline — Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation
- Board of Physical and Occupational Therapy — Republic Act No. 5680 (PRC-hosted copy) — Professional Regulation Commission
