Are you a physiotherapy student who is graduating soon? Are you grappling with assignments, exams and starting to apply for your first job in the profession? If this sounds familiar, the Physiotherapy Board of Australia (the Board) is encouraging you to go online to apply for registration and smooth out the path from study to work.

When you graduate and before you enter the world of work as a physiotherapist, you must register with the Board. We want to help you register as quickly and easily as possible so you can start work.

There is only one registration Board for physiotherapists. The Board covers registration in every state and territory in Australia. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) manages the registration of graduates on behalf of the Board.

You can apply online for registration four to six weeks before completing your course, or your approved program of study.

Follow the three steps to apply for registration as a graduate:

Step 1: Create your AHPRA account.

Step 2: Complete your online application and upload documents.

Step 3: Pay and submit your application.

You can apply online by setting up an account with AHPRA with a unique and personal email address only you have access to. This allows for progress on your application form to be saved and resumed as required. We cannot register you if we do not have all the information we require. AHPRA will contact you if more information is needed once you have submitted your application. Your university will provide AHPRA with your results of your course. AHPRA cannot register you until that occurs and your application is complete.

Registration standards that relate to the new graduates are:

• criminal history


• English language skills


• professional indemnity insurance arrangements.

New graduates registered with the Board are eligible to start work as soon as their name is published on the national register. Find out how to use the online graduate application by accessing the information on the AHPRA website under ‘graduate applications’. The Board has developed a special video to help you understand why registration is important and to help you find out more about becoming a registered physiotherapist.

Remember to check out the Board’s website at physiotherapyboard.gov.au to read and understand the Board’s codes, polices and guidelines which you will need to know throughout your career. These will help you provide safer care to patients.

The Board’s video and other useful information for students and graduates is available on our student registration page of the Board’s website.

You can also review the information on the AHPRA website on the graduate applications page.

Looking to employ a newly graduated physiotherapist?

• once registered with the Board newly graduated physiotherapists in Australia are registration-ready, which means they are employment-ready as a physiotherapist


• you can check your new employee is registered by looking up their registration on the online national register of practitioners


• graduates cannot begin work as a physiotherapist until they are registered


• graduates can be employed as a physiotherapy assistant while they wait on their registration to be finalised; however, they cannot use the protected title ‘physiotherapist’ until they are registered.

Have you still got questions? Read the FAQ page on the AHPRA website, or call AHPRA on 1300 419 495. You can also submit an online enquiry using the category Graduate Applications at ahpra.gov.au.