Today and future of the Swedish Audiology program

1
Today and future of the Swedish Audiology program

• Petra Herrlin
• Director of undergraduate studies
• Division of AudiologyDept. of clinical science,
  intervention and technology
• Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
• Bad Zwischenahn, Germany - January 2008

2
Background

• Stepwise development since the 70-ies
• Bachelor (3-year) programs since 1995
• Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm
• University of Gothenburg
• University of Örebro
• Swedish Master programs (total 4 years)
• University of Lund since 1995
• Other universities 1-2 year available in
  different Master programs open for audiologists
• Includes a Master thesis in Audiology (30 ECTS
  credits)
• Ph.D. programs - 4 years
• Few students - but growing
• 10 audiologists in Sweden have a Ph.D. today
• All audiologists are clinically trained
• There are approx. 900 audiologists in Sweden

3
Main aims

• Competence and knowledge to work in any area
  connected with hearing.
• Integration of medicine, technology, and
  behavioural sciences
• Optimising relation between hearing, hearing
  technology and communication
• with regards to the patients individual needs.

4
The 3 parts of Audiology

• Medical audiology
• Technical audiology
• Behavioural audiology
• and related subjects

5
Medical audiology

• Audiological medicine
• Hearing diagnostics
• Neurology and neuropsychology

6
Technical audiology

• Physics and acoustics
• Signal theory
• Auditory perception
• Hearing aid technology
• Technical hearing rehabilitation

7
Behavioural audiology

• Hearing handicap
• Psychology
• Counselling
• Adult education and learning
• Behavioural aspects of audiology
• Habilitation

8
Related subjects

• Linguistics and phonetics
• Statistics
• Research methods and scientific theory
• Thesis work in one of the main subjects

9
Clinical training

• Approx. one semester in total (22 ECTS
  credits,divided over the 3 years)
• Training under supervision at a hearing clinic
• Diagnostics
• Rehabilitation
• Education
• Students are evaluated by
• Supervisor evaluation
• Self evaluation
• Clinical examination

10
Future developments

• Has been adjusted to the Bologna process
• Bachelor program - 3 years
• Master program 1 or 2 years
• PhD program - 4 years
• Increase the master and research programs
• Network
• Co-operation between universities needed
• Discussion are going on between Stockholm, Lund,
  Gothenburg and Örebro about how master courses
  can be developed together