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The ASHA Leader has published several articles over the last two years informing constituents of the shortage of PhDs. The latest article (Scott and Wilcox, Nov. 19, 2002) reflects the attitudes of many university programs and addresses the problems encountered by speech-language pathologists.
Essentially, universities are discriminating against older experienced students returning to school in order to pursue a PhD. This is done by not considering part-time PhD students, requiring a mentor (committee chair) to be in place prior to admission, reluctance to consider candidates who have not "pipelined" at their university, the desire for candidates to have their dissertation topic in place prior to admission, and professors’ unwillingness to work with candidates who have not previously studied under or worked with them on research projects. Interesting, isn’t it, that there was no mention of recruiting older, experienced individuals with practical, field-based knowledge to address the critical shortages of doctoral-level scholars?
It saddens me, because these attitudes are contributing to creating an inbred, dying profession. However, there are many SLPs pursuing PhDs in related disciplines at Carnegie Doctoral/Research Universities-Extensive. I agree with the conclusion of Scott and Wilcox, "The stakes are high, and the outcome could not be more critical." ASHA and university programs should rethink their positions and actively recruit experienced professionals with the CCCs into their programs.
Glenda Byrns
Houston, TX
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