An innovative new degree

Southern Cross University’s School of Health and Human Sciences offers an innovative new degree qualification in pedorthics. The course was developed in close consultation with Adjunct Professional Fellow Karl-Heinz Schott, a qualified pedorthics specialist with more than 25 years’ experience in the industry and an Australian certified pedorthist and master German-trained orthopaedic shoemaker.

The University is undertaking accreditation through the Pedorthic Association Australia (PAA). Once accredited, the degree will enable graduates to become members of the Association, to become certified pedorthists, and to practise as professional pedorthists in Australia. The Bachelor of Pedorthics is an Australian first and offers the only degree-qualified program in pedorthics in Australia.

It is also one of very few courses in the world to focus on this area of study and offers students a state-of-the-art specialised pedorthics patient assessment laboratory and orthoses/footwear manufacturing laboratory at the University’s Gold Coast campus in south-east Queensland.

Supervised professional placements during the later stages of the course enable students to work with patients to further develop their work-ready skills in areas like patient assessment, orthoses and footwear design, custom shoe making, design of exercise regimes, monitoring patient progress and reviewing patient outcomes.