Doctor of Philosophy
The SHS doctoral degree at the University of Illinois is designed to educate students in research methodologies germane to speech, language,
and hearing sciences. The program is rigorous in terms of expectations but flexible in terms of prerequisites, thereby allowing students to take
advantage of the wide variety of courses and research labs available at the university in order to build their own individual expertise. In addition
to courses specific to a student's aspiring specialty, students will be immersed in the full range of academic experiences, including reviewing
research, developing research questions, designing studies, submitting papers, teaching, presenting at conferences, reviewing journal articles,
writing grants, and bridging research and practice. Our goal is to prepare visionary leaders in the field of Speech and Hearing Science that will
be able to fill a variety of influential career positions, including academic appointments at research-intensive universities.
The PhD program in the Department of Speech and Hearing Science is divided into three stages. Students enter the doctoral program with an
assigned research mentor. Stage I consists of a) 40 hours of graduate-level coursework that meet the requirements for a master’s degree in Speech
and Hearing Science and b) a direct, mentored research project. Students with an MA degree may be considered for entrance directly into Stage II
and will also complete an early research project. Stage II involves one or more years devoted to an additional 40 hours minimum of graduate credit
coursework. Stage II culminates in the student’s dissertation prospectus, which serves as the preliminary examination and includes both a written
and an oral component. The purpose of the prospectus is to review the feasibility and rigor of a student’s dissertation research proposal. During
Stage III, the student's major responsibility will be conducting the dissertation project and writing up and defending the dissertation at an oral
defense.
More Information
Admissions
Contact
Ph.D. Program Details (PDF)
Nicoline Ambrose, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies, Associate Head, Associate Professor
shs-grad-admissions@ahs.illinois.edu