Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services

Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

The Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education at Utah State University offers a clinical Doctorate of Audiology (AuD). The program provides students with a broad, yet in-depth, academic and practicum-based curriculum to prepare them for applied audiology in a variety of settings. Graduates have the skills to function at a high level of expertise in such environments as clinics, hospitals, private practice, research laboratories, hearing conservation programs, schools, the military, etc.

The program is a four-year post-baccalaureate residency program, the first of its kind in the Intermountain West and Pacific states. Utah State University is the birthplace of educational audiology. In addition, USU is in the forefront of research in telehealth applications in audiology. The AuD enables graduates to enter the field at a professional level and begin a rewarding career of service in this evolving allied health care discipline.

The program meets the mandate of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to have audiology students move from masters-level to doctoral-level training as the entry-level requirement within the profession of audiology. Specifically, the AuD requires three years of coursework, one year of intensive clinical practicum, and a doctoral-level clinically-related project to meet the requirements currently recommended for the AuD by ASHA and the American Academy of Audiology (AAA). All Audiology graduate students must take the ASHA national exam (Educational Testing Service-Praxis test). When they register, they must list USU as a recipient of their examination scores. Before a letter of completion will be sent to the School of Graduate Studies, students must also provide the department with written proof that they have registered for the exam.

Students at USU participate in didactic and experiential learning in clinical, educational, telehealth, and rehabilitative audiology.