Communication Sciences and Disorders PhD at University of Wisconsin Madison

The department offers graduate programs leading to the M.S. and Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders. An additional program in the department leads to the Au.D. in audiology. The graduate program provides the opportunity for study in the areas of audiology, speechlanguage pathology, hearing science, language science, and speech science. The purpose of the graduate program is to prepare clinicians, researchers, and teachers who possess a solid foundation in both the theoretical and applied aspects of the discipline of communication sciences and disorders.

The Ph.D. program provides relevant classroom and laboratory experiences for the scholarresearcher interested in communication processes and communicative disorders. A student's academic program will consist of course work within the department and in related areas such as psychology, biology, linguistics, statistics, computer science, and education. Students completing the program will be prepared for careers as university professors, laboratory researchers, and senior clinicians.

Individual programs can be designed for students who wish to pursue professional training/clinical certification (in either speechlanguage pathology or audiology) and the Ph.D. degree. Such students follow a modified sequence of course work, clinical training, and research experience in order to satisfy all academic and certification requirements in five to six years.

1. (Foundations of Research) Possess foundational knowledge about the particular subject area of the chosen area, and be fully conversant with the classic and contemporary literature.
2. (Foundations of Research) Master data collection techniques specific to their chosen area of research.
3. (Foundations of Research) Fully conversant with the theoretical issues and tensions within their chosen area of research.
4. (Foundations of Research) Gain high-level knowledge and expertise in the statistical analysis of research data and graphical approaches to exploration of data sets.
5. (Foundations of Research) Communicate complex ideas in a clear and understandable manner.
6. (Dissertation) Design and execute an original experiment (or experiments) that clearly fills a gap in the existing literature and is worthy of publication(s) in peer-reviewed journals.
7. (Dissertation) Skill, experience, and knowledge base to defend the dissertation work to a committee of five faculty members.
8. (Professional Conduct) Design and conduct experiments.
9. (Professional Conduct) Formulate research questions that are based on sound analyses of existing literature, and that show evidence of logical argument.
10. (Professional Conduct) Understand how to examine data for patterns that are meaningful and patterns that reflect likely data collection errors.
11. (Professional Conduct) Write research proposals and learn to develop carefully argued proposals and explanations.
12. (Professional Conduct) Make presentations of their research at national and international conferences.
13. (Professional Conduct) Pass a summary exam (6 hours written, 2 hours oral) that admits them to candidacy for the PhD degree.