Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders in final phase of Doctoral Program Approval
Three and a half years after the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders made its initial doctoral program proposal, the UH system’s Board of Regents approved the petition in May, moving it to its final destination: the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
“There’s a critical shortage of people with terminal degrees in speech and hearing sciences,” said Ferenc Bunta, an associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders (COMD). “This will fill the need both in Texas as well as nationally.”
The department’s committee, which Bunta led, began the process in 2014 and received the Board of Regent’s approval in May, but the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board makes the final decision.
The department hopes to begin the program in Fall 2019 and enroll its first student in Fall 2020 if their proposal makes it past the board, Bunta said.
Before that happens, the department has to meet with a member of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to work out details and get on their agenda, he said.
Provost Paula Short said the department’s graduate-program rank moved from 144 to 69 between 2007 and 2016.