Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Field of Study: Communication Sciences

Program Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy is awarded in recognition of mastery, at an advanced level, of a body of knowledge in the disciplines of communication sciences and speech-language pathology, and a demonstrated ability to perform independent research and communicate the results of that research. With the major advisor, the student designs an individual plan of study based on his/her professional goals and previous experience. Doctoral students choose a content area (such as communication and aging, medically based speech disorders, or child language development and disorders) as their primary focus of study. However, they are also encouraged to enhance their scholarly preparation by completing coursework outside of their primary content area.

In addition to coursework within the department, doctoral students may choose courses from graduate programs in other departments of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as from several professional schools at the university, including the School of Medicine (e.g., neuroscience, genetics), the Case School of Engineering (e.g., biomedical engineering), the School of Dental Medicine, the Weatherhead School of Management, and the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences.

PhD Policies

For PhD policies and procedures, please review the School of Graduate Studies section of the General Bulletin.

Program Requirements

Requirements for the doctoral program include course work, research rotations, a supervised classroom teaching experience, written and oral comprehensive examinations, and a dissertation.

• A minimum of 36 credit hours of course work is required, including 9 credit hours in statistics and research design and 3 credit hours of directed study and research. 15 credit hours in the primary content area are required.
• Two research rotations are required. One rotation is completed in the primary content area with the major advisor. The second rotation is completed with a faculty member other than the major advisor. The dissertation research is not included in either of the two research rotations.
• A supervised classroom teaching experience is completed under the guidance of a faculty member in the program.
• Written and oral examinations are taken after all coursework and research rotations are completed.
• A dissertation prospectus is prepared under the guidance of a committee consisting of the dissertation advisor and two additional faculty members. A defense of the dissertation prospectus is required prior to commencing the dissertation study.
• An oral defense of the dissertation takes place at the end of the doctoral program.