Press Announcement
Date: March 17, 1998
Contact: Dr. Bryce Redington
Central Michigan University (CMU) and Vanderbilt University (VU) have been selected to receive a $250,000 award to develop and provide a distance-learning Doctor of Audiology (Au.D.) Degree program for audiologists currently practicing within the Federal government. The CMU/VU Au.D. Degree Program will be available by September, 1999, and is expected to also be available to audiologists within the private sector.
Offered primarily through the Internet, the Au.D. Degree Program will be readily accessible to all government and civilian audiologists regardless of their employment location. So that it will not interfere with participants government work activities, the Program will be self-paced, accessible at the participants convenience, and may be completed within 1-2 years. Tuition costs to government audiologists will be highly affordable, costing approximately $7,000-$9,000 to obtain the degree. Clinical competencies and other curricular requirements involving direct interactions between participants and instructors will be taught in workshops held in conjunction with the annual conventions of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, the American Academy of Audiology, and at the annual Military Audiology Short Course.
The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association has mandated that the doctorate be the entry-level degree required to be credentialed within the Audiology profession by the year 2011. Standards of practice for audiologists employed by the federal government have traditionally equaled or exceeded those for audiologists in the private sector. Based on the evolving standard of practice, it is expected that in the future, audiologists hired by the federal government must hold the doctorate.
A Joint Services/Department of Veterans Affairs Au.D. Steering Committee consisting of Audiology leaders from the three military services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, professional Audiology associations, and universities having major Audiology educational programs issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine to 120 universities within the United States to develop and offer a distance-learning based Au.D. Degree Program to government audiologists. Funds were raised from the three military services, the Department of Veterans Affairs, professional Audiology organizations, and private industry to underwrite the RFP. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the American Academy of Audiology made major contributions. The Jackson Foundation, a private not-for-profit organization chartered by Congress in 1983 to support military medical research and education, raised funds form private industry and administered the RFP.
For more information, call Dr. Brian Walden, Executive Secretary, Joint Services/Department of Veterans Affairs Au.D. Steering Committee; or Dr. Bryce Redington, Special Projects Director, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, at.