Role
Bernhard is the Deputy Head of the School of Health Professions with specific responsibility for matters relating to learning and teaching.
Bernhard is also the lead physiotherapist for the University of Plymouth.
Qualifications & background
Bernhard Haas is a Chartered and Registered Physiotherapist. He qualified as a physiotherapist in 1984 in West Berlin. He moved to the UK in 1984, working in hospitals and trusts in Oxford and Buckinghamshire. It was at the National Spinal Injuries Centre at Stoke Mandeville where he developed his expertise in rehabilitation and patient management. He left full time work in the NHS in 1992 to take up his first teaching post at the University of Brighton. Bernhard joined Plymouth in 2003 in order to design the new physiotherapy programme and taking it to its initial approval and validation. He managed the programme on a day to day basis until his current appointment as Deputy Head of School.
Professional membership
Registered as a physiotherapist with the Health Profession Council (HPC)
Member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Roles on external bodies
Bernhard represents physiotherapy at the University of Plymouth at a numbers of committies and professional bodies such as the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and the Health Professions Council.
Teaching interests
Bernhard's clinical background is in the area of neurological physiotherapy and rehabilitation and therefore he is involved in modules related to this subject area. As an experienced academic and lecturer he has also developed a keen interest into how students learn and develop. It is therefore not surprising that he was keen to apply the principles of Problem Based Learning to the new physiotherapy programme at the university. Bernhard also represents the School of Health Professions on the Faculty Learning and Teaching Committee.
Staff serving as external examiners
Bernhard has been an approved external examiner for the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy for a number of years and has examined physiotherapy programmes at a number of UK universities, such as Brunel, Huddersfield, Hertfordshire and Coventry.
Research interests
His research interests are in the area of neurological rehabilitation, specifically related to activity, exercise and function in condictions such as Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury. He received a Wellfare Reserach grant from the Parkinson's Disease Society in 2000 to investigate cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular function in mild to moderate Parkinson's disease.
UoP Research group membership
Centre for Health and Social Care Innovation (CHeSCI)
Rehabilitation
Grants & contracts
2001: Welfare Research Grant: Parkinson's Disease Society UK: £19,500
2007: HEFCE Research informed Teaching Project: £18,000
2007: Fellowship Award: Centre for Excellence in Professional Placement Learning, University of Plymouth: £6,000
2009: VC's Community Research Award: £8200
