Fred Minifie, Ph.D., University of Washington

Ann Smit, Ph.D., Kansas State University

Irving Hochberg, Ph.D., City University of New York

The Working Group was established in response to the concerns expressed at the 1997 annual meting of the Council that there are insufficient numbers of doctoral students being educated in communication sciences and disorders to replenish the professoriate and to advance the knowledge base of the discipline. The following report reflects the Working Group’s attempt to identify and delineate the factors related to this issue, and to recommend specific initiatives for the Council and program directors to consider in an effort to mitigate an already urgent situation.

Advocating for Doctoral Education. There is an urgent and crucial need to advocate for doctoral education in communication sciences and disorders by the various constituencies associated with the discipline. Educators at every level of the discipline, as well as officials of learned societies and professional organizations should proactively advocate the need for qualified students to pursue doctoral study for careers in research and academia. Specifically, all faculty at undergraduate and master’s level programs should take the lead in promoting doctoral study by describing the discipline as leading to both clinical and academic/research careers. The introduction of the discipline to new undergraduate majors should be described in comprehensive terms, to include the viability of educational tracks that may culminate in professional practice, research and/or university teaching. The latter orientation should be reinforced to students in master’s programs and at interdisciplinary and interdepartmental meetings within colleges and universities continually. It is crucial that other disciplines begin to learn that communication sciences and disorders is characterized by career choices that include research and teaching, and not only professional practice. The manner in which the nature of the discipline is represented and advocated by its own faculties is the crucial first step in bringing about the changes that are necessary to resolve the issue confronting us.

1. The Council should encourage the faculties of undergraduate and terminal master’s programs in communication sciences and disorders to become active advocates for doctoral education.
2. The Council should adopt the position that urges all faculties to describe and represent communication sciences and disorders as a scientific discipline that leads to careers in clinical practice, research and/or university teaching. The Council should go on record in this regard and prepare and disseminate descriptive materials to support this orientation.
3. Faculties in undergraduate and terminal master’s programs should develop specific activities to orient their students about the virtues of and opportunities for academic and research careers. The Council should serve as a resource for the provision of information for these endeavors.

Formation of NRSA Consortium. In an attempt to determine the extent to which educational programs receive extra-mural funding (T32) from NIDCD to provide research training to pre- and post-doctoral students in communication sciences and disorders, a survey was distributed to 14 (of the 35 funded programs) directors of programs that appear to educate researchers in the discipline. Responses were received from 11 and represent the current data pool. The results of the survey lead to the following salient observations: (1) approximately 60% of pre-doctoral trainees and 80% of post-doctoral trainees come from disciplines other than communication sciences and disorders; (2) among these Ph.D. disciplines, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience and cognitive science comprise the largest number of pre- and post-doctoral trainees; (3) the majority with master’s degrees come from communication sciences and disorders; and (4) approximately 75% of those entering post-doctoral training programs come from linguistics and psychology; approximately 20% come from communication sciences and disorders. The findings from this survey support the general concern that too few graduates of programs in communication sciences and disorders enter doctoral programs, and even fewer seek postdoctoral research training in contrast to other disciplines.

1. The Council should sponsor or co-sponsor with NIDCD a meeting of directors of NRSA (T32) research training programs in communication sciences and disorders to address the issues related to the insufficient number of doctoral and post-doctoral graduates. It is further recommended that such a meeting consider the establishment of a consortium of NRSA program directors to meet and communicate periodically.

2. In an effort to provide impetus for doctoral programs in communication sciences and disorders to apply to NIDCD for extra-mural funding, it is suggested that successful NRSA (T32) applications be made available to potential applicants. It would be beneficial if a subgroup of T32 program directors (who are not also submitting competitive grants on the same due date or who are not serving as NIH reviewers for that cycle) would be willing to read early versions of proposals and provide feedback.

Recruitment from Terminal Master’s Programs. Recruitment from terminal master’s programs in communication sciences and disorders could take at least two different forms: (1) Recruitment efforts that are organized and implemented by the Council itself. This might involve focus groups at the annual Council meeting, which would include the directors of these programs along with representative form doctoral-level programs. The purpose would be for directors of doctoral programs to outline opportunities for their master’s students, indicate available sources of support and provide information about different types of science courses students could take at the MA level that would be advantageous in their applications to doctoral programs. (2)

Individual doctoral programs should also be encouraged to develop strategies for attracting Ph.D. students from terminal MA programs. For example, a program may seek to identify a small number of terminal MA programs to develop a long-term relations and promote the doctoral program to their graduates. This strategy is applicable also to the establishment of a consortium with a small number of historically black institutions to increase the number of minority applications at both MA and Ph.D. levels.

1. The Council should consider sponsoring focus group meetings at each annual conference to bring together directors of MA and Ph.D. programs for the purpose of sharing information and addressing issues related to increasing the pool of potential applicants for Ph.D. study in communication sciences and disorders.
2. The Council should sponsor a panel discussion followed by breakout groups during which program directors share recruitment strategies that have been successful in attracting promising students for doctoral study.

applicable to the recruitment of minority student. In addition, there is increasing awareness of the need to provide financial support of minority students from both the private and public sectors, as well as within the university administrations. In this connection, programs to support the education of minority students are sponsored by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, the Department of Education and private foundations. One such program is supported by the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program of the U.S. Department of Education. Its purpose is to stimulate entry into doctoral programs on the part of members of groups traditionally underrepresented in advanced study and therefore ineligible for careers in research and higher education. The project reaches out to undergraduates in a variety of disciplines, including communication sciences and disorders. Another program is sponsored by NIDCD (T32M), Minority Institutional Research Training Program, which is designed to train graduate students in the health professions to develop a program in human communication disorders and diseases research. Such extra-mural funding would supplement the initiatives already taking place in colleges and universities to provide support for minority students.

1. The Council should survey the various intra-university and extra-mural funding programs that currently provide support for undergraduate and graduate minority students in communication sciences and disorders. Directors of member programs of the Council should facilitate obtaining this information from their respective administrators. The Council should subsequently distribute this information to the membership.
2. The Council should consider sponsoring a panel discussion at one of its annual meetings to address minority recruitment for doctoral study by inviting representatives of federal and private funding agencies that include programs that support minority students.

Recruitment of Students from Other Disciplines. Recruitment of students from undergraduate and graduate programs from other disciplines should not be overlooked. In fact, some of our best and brightest students have come from other disciplines, many from undergraduate programs in the liberal arts and sciences. The key to attracting such students is to provide a doctoral program of quality that will provide them with intellectual opportunities and challenges that capitalize on their individual strengths and interests, and offers them various career options, including research and university teaching. For example, students from electrical engineering could be offered assistantships that would utilize their abilities as computer system administrators; students from ESL or linguistics could be offered opportunities to assist in developing treatment programs that include multicultural assessment techniques; students from the sciences may be employed as laboratory assistants. One of the crucial aspects in recruiting students from other programs, especially from the sciences, is related to the provision of a doctoral program that is science-based, and which offers career choices that include both clinical and non-clinical options, that is, communication sciences and communication disorders.

1. Program directors should meet with chair of departments in other disciplines to describe the nature of communication sciences and disorders and the career options the discipline offers, including doctoral education for positions in academia and research.
2. Principal investigators of research programs/grants should consider students from other disciplines as potential research assistants.
3. Ph.D. students in communication sciences and disorders programs should host a series of "open houses" on an annual basis for students in other disciplines, especially for students in undergraduate programs. The open houses should include, but are not limited to, demonstrations of student’s research projects, a tour of research laboratories and clinical facilities, and presentations by students that describe their individual doctoral programs of study.

Recruitment of Undergraduate Students. Although some doctoral programs permit undergraduate students to enroll in their programs, there is a greater tendency for such students to be advised to enroll in master’s programs initially, obtain the academic and practicum requirements for certification and subsequently reapply. The negative consequence of such an invariant position is to lose some promising students who are motivated to pursue advanced graduate education and assume they subsequently will retain their eagerness two or three years hence to pursue the Ph.D. If we seriously wish to address the issue of an insufficient supply of Ph.D. graduates to embark on research and academic careers, a significant shift in attitude and student advisement on the part of program directors and faculty at all academic levels must take place. Specifically, doctoral programs should be encouraged to consider recruiting undergraduate students across disciplines; faculty of undergraduate programs should identify and encourage promising students to consider doctoral study following the baccalaureate degree, and assist in making contacts for them in this endeavor. A related issue, of course, is for Ph.D. programs to accommodate the enrollment of undergraduate students to help them meet the requirements of ASHA certification.

1. The Council should adopt the position that urges doctoral programs to recruit promising undergraduates from all disciplines. It also should encourage faculties to counsel promising undergraduate students enrolled in the discipline to consider the option of doctoral study in lieu of enrolling in master’s programs. Given the present circumstance of large enrollments in master’s programs nationwide, the loss of a few students to these programs does not appear to be detrimental to their viability.
2. Doctoral programs should be encouraged to consider modifying their curricula to accommodate students enrolled in a BA-Ph.D. track to meet ASHA certification requirements.

Clinical Certification: An Unnecessary Requirement for Scientists. The increasing professionalization of the discipline has been recognized by most, if not all, observers of this academic trend in communication sciences and disorders. One consequence of this trend has been for announcements of faculty positions to stipulate the requirement or preference for ASHA certification with virtual disregard for the specialization associated with the vacancy. This unyielding position has led to a decrease in the number of qualified speech scientists and hearing scientists who are able to apply for academic positions, and has resulted in Ph.D. students in these specializations to obtain certification in order to compete for these professsorial positions. It is, however, the case that a number of large and even moderately sized programs has sufficient cadres of supervisors responsible for clinical practicum, and such programs can accommodate the few faculty who do not possess his professional credential. The determination of a certification requirement for a faculty appointment in the speech or hearing sciences should be made by individual programs. Strict adherence to an inflexible criterion that applies to virtually all academic appointments precludes the consideration of well-educated and highly qualified candidates. If this requirement were eliminated, even in 25% of faculty appointments, an increased number of such appointments could be made in the sciences, the research base of the discipline would be expanded, and the overall quality of the professoriate would be improved as a direct consequence of the wider base of potentially strong applicants becoming available.

1. The Council should adopt the position that supports the independence of academic programs recruiting speech scientists and hearing scientists to determine whether or not to stipulate ASHA certification as a requirement for such faculty appointments.
2. The Council should adopt the position that supports academic programs that wish to eliminate ASHA certification as a requirement for academic appointments in the speech and hearing sciences.

Establishment of Standing Committee on Doctoral Education. Recognizing the urgency of replenishing the professoriate and advancing the knowledge base in communication sciences and disorders, the Council should address this issue on a continuing basis. It is important that the Council demonstrate its ongoing commitment to doctoral education by its active involvement in planning, sponsoring and supporting activities nationwide to meet the challenges of a dwindling scientific and educational leadership in communication sciences and disorders. To this end the following recommendation is offered.

The Council should establish a standing committee on doctoral and post-doctoral education that would be charged with the continuing responsibility to address the shortage of doctoral students being educated to replenish the professoriate and to advance the knowledge base of the discipline. The committee would further be charged to develop initiatives for maximizing recruitment efforts for doctoral and post-doctoral study in communication sciences and disorders.