Doctor of Philosophy Program

The Doctor of Philosophy program in Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences provides an education in the methods of scholarship, teaching, and research. A student should attain skills required for the objective maintenance, dissemination, and creation of basic and applied information in the sciences of communication disorders. Pertinent experiences in the doctoral program include additional study in another field that is related to the understanding of communication disorders, study of the basic methods of scientific investigation, and experience in the activities that are most typical of persons holding a doctoral degree. These experiences include teaching, research, and writing. These skills are considered to elevate previous training and experience in providing clinical services to persons with communication disorders.

The department guidelines for doctoral study consist of procedures for planning a program of study, minimum requirements for a program plan (including course work, research, and teaching), procedures for comprehensive examination, and procedures for a dissertation. This reflects the sequence of the major steps toward obtaining the doctoral degree. Research and teaching experiences may be obtained at any point along this path. The following guidelines were developed by the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences so that they would meet the needs of the audiology and speech-language pathology profession and, also, would be consistent with the general policies for doctoral education set forth by the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

A strong advisory system is maintained for all Ph.D. students in order to aid curriculum, qualifying examination, and dissertation planning.

The Ph.D. student must complete graduate-level course work in various areas in keeping with the following minimum requirements:

Ph.D. Program Plan Summary

Program Requirements

I.     Course Requirements (76 credits, minimum):

  1. A minimum of 12 courses contributing to the student’s program of study (minimum of 36 credits). There are not specific classes that a student must take to reach the 36-credit minimum.
    i.  Of these 12, a minimum of 4 courses will be in statistics/research design.
    ii. Of these 12, a minimum of 8 courses, which could include independent studies (SLHS 896), that will relate to the student’s intended area of expertise or that broaden their knowledge base in their intended area of expertise.
  2. A 3-credit lab rotation Independent Study (SLHS 896) to fulfil the Research Lab Rotation Requirement.
  3. SPHHS 790A Graduate Teachers in SPHHS Seminar (1 credit).
  4. SPHHS 600 Great Challenges in Public Health, if not taken as part of a previous degree program at UMass.
  5. SPHHS 831 or ANTHRO 690P or other relevant grant writing class that is approved by the student’s program planning and advisory committee (3 credits).
  6. SLHS 890P Doctoral Professional Development Seminar (1 credit each semester). Students are required to enroll in the seminar until they reach candidacy.
  7. 6 pre-dissertation credits
  8. 18 dissertation credits

II.   Research Training Requirements:

  1. 1st Year Research Project – a heavily mentored research experience in which the student serves as Research Assistant for their faculty advisor.
  2. Required lab rotation – a research experience outside of the primary faculty advisor’s research lab.
  3. Pre-dissertation project – the student demonstrates increased independence in the design and execution of this research project that leads their dissertation.
  4. Grant submission – All SLHS students are required to write and submit a grant to an external agency that is appropriate based on the topic of their dissertation study.
  5. Dissertation project – follows successful completion of the Comprehensive Exam.

III.  Teaching Requirement

  1. The teaching experience involves a minimum of co-teaching or being the instructor of 1 course in the SLHS department.

IV.   Comprehensive Exam

  1. When most of a student’s coursework is completed, they will complete the comprehensive exam to demonstrate their command of the appropriate literature for their programmatical focus.

V.    Dissertation

  1. A dissertation prospectus must be accepted by the student’s dissertation committee prior to the start of the dissertation work, and the completed dissertation must be defended in the form of an oral examination conducted by the student’s committee.

For further information on graduate programs, contact: Jill Hoover in the Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, 358 N. Pleasant Street., University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003-9296; jrhoover@umass.edu 
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