degrees in Rehab Sciences

[Joe Stemberger]

I'll give my perspective on this question, as a linguist who was in the 
Department of Communication Disorders at the University of Minnesota for 
11 years (in the SLP section) and who now has close ties with the School 
of Audiology & Speech Science at UBC.

For the past decade or more, the field of Speech-Language Pathology has 
been underproducing Ph.D.'s. There have been far more new faculty 
positions available than there have been newly-minted SLP Ph.D.'s to 
fill them. Consequently, many departments have been hiring people from 
related fields (including Linguistics, Psychology, and Education) whose 
background and research interests are affiliated with speech-language 
pathology.

I would expect that a Ph.D. in Rehabilitative Sciences would be 
marketable to departments of communication disorders, as long as the 
person's training includes language/speech and the research specialty 
involves language or speech.

I expect that that will change when/if the field eventually produces 
enough Ph.D.'s to meet demand. But there's no sign of that yet.


---Joe Stemberger
Linguistics
UBC


> 
> Dear Colleagues,
> I know of a peer who currently holds a masters degree in speech 
> pathology and is now working on a PhD in Rehabilitative Sciences.  
> Apparently there are few or no programs in this geographical area which 
> offer PhDs in speech path.  I would like your opinions as to how you 
> feel this degree would be regarded in terms of a faculty position in a 
> speech pathology program.  Do you think it will make a difference to the 
> degree holders hire-ability / marketability in the academic arena when 
> compared against someone holding a PhD in speech pathology or 
> communication disorders?
>  
> Sincerely,
> K. Mainess