Introduction: Physiology is often seen by health students as demanding. This study explores perceptions of undergraduate Physiology students across courses in Portuguese higher education. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study involved undergraduate health sciences students from universities and polytechnic schools (equivalent to technical colleges in the US). Data were collected via a 28-item questionnaire hosted in Google Forms® covering demographics, relevance, performance, methods and assessment. The protocol was previously approved by the institutional Ethics Commission. Results: Responders (N=351, 151 from university and 200 from technical schools) were mostly in the second year of their tracks (56%). The mean age was 22.3 years (SD 6.2), and 54% identified as women. University students tended to find Physiology more relevant for their professional future (p=0.003). Three-quarters of students agreed to be an essential discipline (higher in the university 78% vs 68%; p=0.040), also reporting “too extensive contents” - excessive workloads were reported by university students (60% vs 32%; p< 0.001). Two thirds of responses stated that this workload competes with other disciplines (60% vs 43%; p=0.003). Unclear perception of the purpose was more frequent in polytechnic students (26% vs 11%; p=0.002), also stating that “teaching and learning systems are not very motivating” (54% vs 36%; p=0.001). Significant differences were found regarding experienced teaching strategies where university students reported more lectures (p=0.004) and laboratories (p=0.001) and a variety of other tools. Differences also emerged regarding study habits and materials with polytechnic students reporting a more frequent use of past exams as a resource to prepare for assessments (p=0.002). Concerning assessment formats, statistically significant differences emerged only with the final exam which was reported as a prevalent choice in university (45% vs 29%; p< 0.001). No significant differences were found for other types of assessment; in both settings, the dominant approach was weekly continuous assessment based on tests, assignments, and mid-term exams (76% in the university vs 68% in the polytechnic; p=0.500). Conclusions: This study shows that health sciences undergraduate students strongly value Physiology as essential for understanding health and disease and for future professional practice. They also perceive substantial barriers related to content volume, workload, clarity of learning goals, and the motivational quality of teaching approaches. Differences between university and polytechnic students suggest that institutional context shapes both how Physiology is taught and how it is experienced, particularly in terms of perceived clarity of objectives, workload, and the availability and use of learning supports. Ultimately, these results may inform curriculum development and support more student-centered, interactive, and workload-balanced approaches in Physiology teaching. This abstract was presented at the American Physiology Summit 2026 and is only available in HTML format. There is no downloadable file or PDF version. The Physiology editorial board was not involved in the peer review process.
Rodrigues et al. (Fri,) studied this question.