Doctorate program to be added at Boston School of Occupational Therapy

Tufts Graduate students may now become doctors in occupational therapy without changing schools, decided the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences last Wednesday.

If the Board of Trustees approves the proposal in May, Tufts' Boston School of Occupational Therapy (BSOT) will implement a new doctorate program in January 2005.

"By 2007, it will no longer be enough to enter the field of occupational therapy with only a bachelor's degree," Dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Robin Kanarek said. "The field is changing, and the way it's going, people will soon need doctoral degrees to get the best jobs."

Although the BSOT is ranked as having the fifth best graduate occupational therapy program in the country, Tufts is the only school in the top five that does not currently offer a doctorate program in the subject. As a result, it is losing students to other universities for doctoral education in occupational therapy and related fields.

"The new program will allow us to continue to be competitive with other universities and will open up opportunities for Tufts students," BSOT chair Professor Sharan Schwartzberg said. "We hope that it will drive people to continue at Tufts, rather than go on to study elsewhere."

According to the executive summary of the proposal, the program's stated aim is "to attract and retain students, prepare expert practitioner-teacher-scholars, and to generate a body of research for the profession and health field."

The program would be similar in structure to the current master's programs, and would be administered by a committee consisting of five of the department's full-time faculty members, negating the need for major departmental changes.

The BSOT currently offers two master's programs in occupational therapy -- one for students with a bachelor's degree in occupational therapy and another for students without a degree in the subject.

Citing the results of a marketing survey conducted two years ago, Schwartzberg said that BSOT students have been enthusiastic about the prospect of continuing higher studies at Tufts. "We're delighted about the program and hope that undergraduates will eventually take advantage of it," she said.

Kanarek agreed. "This proposal is very exciting, and undergraduates should take advantage of its benefits," she said, noting how occupational therapy's interdisciplinary nature could appeal to students from many different academic backgrounds.

About 80 students are currently enrolled in the BSOT's masters programs. Kanarek expects that the total number of students will remain approximately the same if the proposal is implemented, as the number of doctorate students would increase while the number of master's students would decrease. According to the proposal, the target enrollment for the doctoral program is 43 to 45 students.

As a graduate-only master's program, the BSOT has collaborative relationships with Tufts' schools of engineering, nutrition, and medicine, as well as several departments in arts and sciences, including biology, child development, and psychology. All these programs have released statements backing the doctorate proposal.

The BSOT was established in 1918 and has been affiliated with Tufts since 1945. It is located on Winthrop Street on the Medford campus.