Master of Sports Rehabilitation (MC-SPREHAB)

The Master of Sports Rehabilitation is a 150-credit point, fully online program designed to produce graduates with extended knowledge and skills for professional practice in the areas of sports and rehabilitation. The curriculum is internationally relevant, fosters interdisciplinary communication and embraces the specialised requirements of different health professionals. It is designed for practicing professionals as it can be studied part time or full time. Graduate attributes are aligned with those of The Melbourne Graduate.

A wholly online Master of Sports Rehabilitation is inherently innovative and combines knowledge fundamental to rehabilitation, sports and exercise and is based on three overlapping foundational pillars incorporated within learning, teaching and assessment tasks. The program has:

1. Student centred flexibility within and between subjects, where students make multiple choices within a structured framework to personalise and build their learning experience to best match their practice context and meet career goals.
2. Longitudinal assembly of multi-modal professional and community resources. This is envisaged to present tangible evidence of practice competency and the application of learning and evidence applied to practice.
3. Cultivation of a International Sports Rehabilitation Community of practice which aligns the needs, demands, expertise and experience of the student cohort, sports and exercise community environments, tutor team, and clinical field experts. This will be characterised by online Master classes, synchronous tutorials, collaborative and independent activities and interactive videos.

This approach is pedagogically robust and embraces the progressing international climate of flexible, sustainable, distance learning models. Assessment tasks can be completed at a distance and submitted electronically, encompassing a variety of written and presentation formats relevant to clinicians in demonstrating knowledge, clinical reasoning, communication and reflective skills in academic and practice contexts.

The Master of Sports Rehabilitation is designed for professionals across degree-qualified health professional disciplines, throughout career stages and internationally. Post-graduates striving to achieve best practice professionally in Sports Rehabilitation will be able to embrace community health through working with recreational athletes to the elite athletes across the lifespan, inclusive of adolescent, adult and senior athletes. The program challenges and extends clinicians to anticipate, enhance and advance best practice internationally.

The curriculum is designed around three elements which will be covered explicitly within learning outcomes in each subject throughout the program: 1) Theory and Practice, 2) Evidence and Innovation and 3) Clinical Practice in Context. Linking theory, research and practice is emphasised, utilising scientific evidence to underpin clinical practice and decisions. The Masters in Sports Rehabilitation core subjects explore professional and clinical practice relating to sport and rehabilitation across the lifespan and across variable levels of abilities. Alongside 8 core (including a capstone) subject, the course includes 3 elective subjects enabling students to scaffold their learning according to their interest areas and practice context. These subjects all require analysis, synthesis and creative problem solving within a range of practice contexts; extending knowledge and understanding, research principles and new innovations that are necessary to undertake sports rehabilitation practice in different environments.

The capstone component is designed to demonstrate the application of knowledge and skills to: plan and execute a substantial research-based project, OR capstone experience OR piece of scholarship, in the area of sports medicine, ensuring that this program meets AQF level 9 requirements. A research project or a professional project can be selected for the Capstone project. The Research Capstone allows students to engage with a research team and more explicitly examine a sports rehabilitation relevant research question in some depth. The professional project capstone will allow the student to complete a professional project in the area of sports rehabilitation practice. They will design and evaluate a professional project in a practice context with the support of an academic mentor.