Program Overview

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point School of Communicative Disorders and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Communicative Disorders have collaborated to develop an AuD program.   Our universities have merged their resources to provide a unique professional doctorate program. 

Lecture classes are taught simultaneously to students at both campuses using videoconferencing. Instructors and students are able to see and interact with each other at the remote campus via video monitor. Students verbally participate in class using dedicated microphones.

Videoconferencing allows the two campuses to share expertise for lecture courses, but it cannot substitute for hands-on, in-person laboratory experience. For this reason, laboratories for classes such as hearing assessment, instrumentation, amplification, physiological assessment, and vestibular assessment and rehabilitation are taught separately, using the same curriculum, on each campus.

During the first year of the program, students’ clinical clerkships take place at their home campus clinic. Madison and Stevens Point both offer students experience in adult and pediatric diagnostics and hearing aids.

During the second year, students participate in a mix of on- and off-campus clinical clerkships, and third-year clinical clerkships are entirely off-campus. Off-campus sites for the second and third year students include major medical centers, VA Hospitals, outpatient ENT clinics, and private practices.  During the summer, students have the option to complete off-campus clerkships at out-of-state sites or sites within Wisconsin that are further away from Madison or Stevens Point. Summer academic coursework is entirely online, so students only need access to a computer and the internet. 

The fourth year of the program consists of a 12-month, full-time externship. Students may complete externships at a single site that offers a range of experiences, or at two or three different sites. Externships may be completed in Wisconsin or out of state. The fourth year also includes an online seminar.

The joint doctoral program in audiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is a Candidate for Accreditation by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.  This is a “pre-accreditation” status with the CAA, awarded to developing or emerging programs for a maximum period of five years.