The University of Dammam represented by the College of Applied Medical Sciences awarded on Saturday 13th of Rabi II 1437 A.H the first Master’s degree to Abdullah AboBaker who graduated from the Physical Therapy program. The jury was consisted of Dr. Ibrahim AlSaid Abdulthaher an Associate Professor and an external arbitrator examiner from the Physical Therapy Department in Al Jouf University and Dr. Mohammed Shawqi an Assistant Professor and an internal arbitrator examiner from the Physical Therapy Department in the University of Dammam who confirmed that the student will be granted a Master’s degree in Physical Therapy in the Musculoskeletal Physical Therapy field. AboBaker’s thesis was discussed in the Conference hall in the College, it was attended by Professor Adel Ibraheem Al-Afaleq the Vice President of University Branch Campus Affairs, Dr. Ali Bin Mutaib Al-Shami Dean of the College of Applied Medical Sciences, Dr. Qassim Al Muedi the Vice Dean of Academic Affairs and the Chair of the Physical Therapy Department and supervisor of AboBaker’s thesis, and Dr. Amir Al Amir the Vice Dean of Graduate Studies.
Dr. Qassim Al Muedi congratulated the student Abdullah AboBaker on being the first student to receive his Master’s degree in Physical Therapy from the University of Dammam. He declared that “knowledge and skill in the field of Physical Therapy has become more in depth and more developed. Also, the chances for clinical studies, research, and academic studies have increased. Therefore, it has become an urgent need to have specialists in subspecialties of Physical Therapy in order to serve the therapeutic system and to work on developing the academic knowledge and this will be achieved through the graduate studies programs.
Dr. Al Muedi added that “the department of Physical Therapy was established in 2012 because of the shortage of Physical Therapy graduates who gain higher degrees therefore we needed to bridge this shortage in order to prepare competent graduates to work in hospitals, universities, and research centers. In the first year 6 students applied to the program and in the third year the number of applicants amounted up to 66 students from all the different specialties. The number of students currently studying in the program are 33 students which is clear proof to the good reputation of the program either from the way it was prepared to the high potentials of the program.
