Doctoral Program

The Ph.D. program is designed to produce a highly qualified professional who may be employed in a university, clinic, hospital, research laboratory, or school system. The successful candidate will demonstrate general mastery of the field of Speech Pathology with special expertise in at least two areas of the field, declared in the program of study (selected from the following: articulation/phonology, cleft palate, aphasia, motor speech disorders, language disorders, stuttering, voice disorders, alaryngeal speech, and clinical supervision).

The candidate will develop skills and experience in teaching, clinical supervision, and research. At least one semester will be spent in each of these activities under the direct supervision of a departmental graduate faculty member. Coursework is designed to develop expertise in the two areas of specialization selected and will lay the foundation for an experimental dissertation that will contribute original knowledge to the field.

Doctoral Program

In accordance with requirements specified in the graduate section of the General Catalog, the doctoral program will include:

• A minimum of three years (six semesters) of residency are required.
• A program of study will be developed individually for each student by the advisory/examining committee. This committee is composed of at least three departmental graduate faculty and two graduate faculty from outside the department.
• A minimum of 72 credits is required for the Ph.D. degree and must include at least 24 credits of dissertation. Students are encouraged to complete deficiencies or retool outdated coursework by taking approximately nine credits from the master's curriculum. A minimum of 12 credit hours is required in statistics/research design and another 12 in departmental doctoral seminars. Nine credits will be granted for experience in teaching/supervision. A minimum of six credits may be selected form related support areas such as medicine, psychology, social psychology, education, dentistry, and English/linguistics, with committee approval. There is no foreign language requirement.

Application for the Doctoral Program

The department of Speech Language Pathology and Audiology is currently accepting applicants for the Speech Language Pathology Doctoral Program. Areas of concentration include: child language development, language-learning disorders, literacy, autism, voice disorders, dysphagia, and cleft palate speech. Stipends are available.

Inquiries may contact Dr. Pradyumn Srivastava, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies, at psrivastava@med.unr.edu

Candidates for admission to the Ph.D. program in Speech Pathology must meet the criteria for admission to the Graduate School of the University of Nevada, Reno as well as additional program criteria. These include:

• An undergraduate degree from an accredited college or university.
• A master's degree in Speech Pathology from a program accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation of ASHA is desirable.

These requirements insure that the student has the necessary course work in the basic sciences and in the professional area, has been employed as a speech-language pathologist, and can supervise student clinicians.