Educating Europe’s next generation of clinical movement analysts

CMAster is probably the project I’m most excited about at the moment. The University of Salford, in partnerships with VU Amsterdam and KU Leuven have just completed a three year project with funding from the Erasmus Programme of the EU Lifelong learning programme to set up a master’s degree programme in clinical movement analysis. The result will be delivered in two phases.

Phase 1

In the first phase three parallel single degrees will be established. Each will be based at one of the Universities but require students to have studied at one of the partner universities for at least three months. Each will build on the particular strengths of the host university. The programme at the University of Salford will thus be delivered by part-time, work-based distance learning over three years. Those at the other two universities will be delivered by full time residential study over a year. That in VU Amsterdam will have a more technical focus whilst that in KU Leuven will be more clinical. About two thirds of the programme is the taught component and will be studied at one university. The other third is a research project which will be undertaken at either of the other two as depicted in this diagram. These programmes all started in September 2014. You can find further details including how to enrol for next September here.

Phase 2

In the second phase the University of Salford and VU Amsterdam will offer a Joint Master’s programme to be delivered full-time over a year. The first semester  will be studied at VU Amsterdam, the second semester will be by work-based distance learning from the University of Salford. Students will then have the option to conduct their research project at either of the three universities or through distance learning from their own workplace. It is planned to open this programme for enrolment for the first time from September 2017.