February 11, 1999
James F. Battey, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.
Director
National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders
Bethesda, Maryland 20892
Re: NIDCD Strategic Planning Initiative
Dear Dr. Battey:
Thank you for the opportunity to provide the perspective of the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders to the NIDCD Strategic Planning Group as part of the strategic planning process. The Council represents 252 graduate programs and more than 70 undergraduate programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders in colleges and universities in the United States. These programs share the common goal of providing state-of-the-art training in basic communication sciences to students at the undergraduate level, the application of research to the problems of assessment and treatment of communication disorders for students in masters degree professional training programs and research training in laboratories pursuing cutting edge issues in hearing, speech and language disorders at the doctoral level. The doctoral training programs are in the middle of a crisis that is having a significant impact on all communication sciences and disorders research and training programs as well as the number and quality of grant submissions to the NIDCD.
The Council conducts a survey of member programs every two years to document the number of degrees conferred at each level, undergraduate, masters and doctoral, the number of doctoral degrees with research emphasis in audiology, speech, or language science and the number of faculty positions open in each of these areas. The data collected over the past 5 - 7 years indicates that there is a serious shortage of doctoral level graduates in all areas. The number of students graduating with doctoral degrees has remained relatively constant over the past ten years, but the number in faculty positions open is increasing as faculty reach retirement age. The average age of faculty in communication sciences and disorders across the country is 54 years. It is expected that more than half of current faculty will retire in the next 5 - 10 years. This is an alarming number considering that the current output of doctoral programs is not able to keep up with the demand. This situation has serious implications for our ability to expand the knowledge in the field through research and as well as for doctoral programs responsible for training the next generation of scientists. A further complication to replacing the aging faculty is that an increasing large proportion of new Ph.D.s take jobs in clinical settings. This situation is contrary to what is happening in other fields where the supply of doctoral and post doctoral trained candidates far exceeds the demand. We bring this situation to the attention of the NIDCD to enlist your help in developing long term solutions this problem.
The Council has two goals.
The NIDCD can help us achieve these goals by increasing funding for doctoral and post doctoral training. This need not require only NIDCD increasing funding for T-32 grants, but should involve building training consortia with other NIH institutes to fund training needs. Since hearing, speech and language disorders occur through the life span and are the result of developmental disorder, acquired disability or degenerative disease, research training addressing hearing, speech, and language disorders must cross traditional institute responsibilities. Some general examples of institute overlap include research training on the speech, hearing and language problems of:
Children with developmental disabilities: NIDCD, NICHD, NINDS, NIDR, NIMH
Adults, NIDCD, NINDS, NIA, NIMH
Adults with developmental disabilities, NICHD, NIDCD, NIA, NINDS, NIMH
Adults with acquired disabilities: NINDS, NIDCD, NIA, NIDR
Adults with degenerative disease: NINDS, NIDR
We recognize that there are a number of examples of institute cooperation in funding research and conference grants. The recent RFA on autism is a wonderful example of promoting interdisciplinary research on a complex developmental disability. We suggest a similar approach to promoting the science through increased T-32 training funds for training speech, hearing and language scientists.
To increase the number of students pursuing careers in Communication Sciences and Disorders, we suggest the focus be shifted to include undergraduate students. The NIDCD should pursue funding mechanisms that would allow programs to compete for programmatic undergraduate research support with T-32 like grants aimed at the initial research training experience. Colleges and Universities are placing more emphasis on research training as part of the undergraduate experience. Departments are responding by developing honors programs requiring a senior thesis. Increased funding would provide more opportunities for the best and brightest undergraduate students exposure to exciting research opportunities. This would also provide a workable mechanism for increasing the participation of under represented minorities in research. We believe a new initiative aimed at undergraduates would increase interest in research careers in Communication Sciences and Disorders.
The Council recognizes the complexities and the increased demand on Institute staff time required to implement these suggestions. Therefore, we offer our direct help as well as our support for working out ways to implement these suggestions. We would seek to act as a catalyst in this effort by organizing a series of meetings among key representatives of relevant NIH institutes to explore ways improve the science of the field and increase the number of outstanding researchers in the field.
Sincerely,
Jon F. Miller, Ph.D.
For the Council of Academic Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders