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The Ph.D. degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders prepares professionals for academic careers, and therefore its emphasis is on research and the scholarly study of the science of human communication and its disorders. All students in the doctoral program must pursue their studies on a full-time basis, conducting scientific experiments in one or more of the department’s laboratories under the guidance of a research mentor. Ph.D. students also gain experience in curriculum development and classroom teaching.

Degree Requirements (57 Post Masters Hours)

Doctoral students must complete a minimum of 45 semester hours of graduate course work beyond the master’s degree in speech-language pathology plus 12 semester hours of dissertation preparation (COMD 899). Students who are nationally certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association generally pursue two years of academic/research preparation followed by one or more years to complete the dissertation. Master’s-level speech-language pathologists who are wishing to pursue their ASHA certification while enrolled in the doctoral program will take slightly longer. Finally, students with bachelor’s degrees from other related scientific disciplines (e.g., psychology, linguistics, engineering, exercise science), who aspire to become speech-language-hearing scientists with no interest in clinical practice, take three years of course work (up to 18 additional semester hours, as determined by their doctoral planning committee) prior to the dissertation year

I. SPEECH, LANGUAGE, & HEARING SCIENCE (Minimum of 9 semester hours)

• COMD 820: Advanced Speech Science (3 hrs)
• COMD 821: Advanced Hearing Science (3 hrs)
• COMD 822: Normal Bases of Speech Production (3 hrs)
• COMD 823: Normal Bases of Language (3 hrs)

II. ADVANCED PROFESSIONAL COURSE WORK (Minimum 24 semester hours. Examples include, but are not limited to the following. Courses in other departments may also be included, as approved by the students Doctoral Planning committee)

• COMD 714: Gerontology and Communicative disorders
• COMD 726: Advanced Cognitive Retraining (3 hrs)
• COMD 760: Cochlear Implants
• COMD 800: Seminar in Speech Pathology (3 hrs)
• COMD 801: Advanced Topics in Speech Pathology (3 hrs)
• COMD 802: Contemporary Issues in Speech Pathology (3 hrs)
  
• COMD 803: Advanced Study of Clinical Phonology (3 hrs)
  
• COMD 805: Advanced study of Language Disorders in Adults (3 hrs)
  
• COMD 840: Seminar in Audiology (3 hrs)

I. RESEARCH/STATISTICS PREPARATION (Minimum 12 semester hours)

• BIOS 700: Introduction to Biostatistics (3 hrs)
• BIOS 757: Intermediate Biometrics (3 hrs)
• EPID 701: Concepts and Methods of Epidemiology (3 hrs)
• COMD 791: Research Methodology (3 hrs)

II. DISSERTATION PREPARATION

• COMD 899: Doctoral Research and Dissertation preparation (12 hrs)

Upon the completion of a program of study, approved by both the student’s academic program committee and The Graduate School, and prior to embarking upon a dissertation, doctoral students must successfully pass written and oral comprehensive examinations. The doctoral program culminates in the successful defense of the dissertation, consisting of the collection and analysis of original scientific data.