An Overview of Higher Education Programs in Communication Disorders in Thailand

Abstract

Communication disorders education in Thailand has been developing for almost 40 years since 1974. The founders were an audiologist and a speech language pathologist who graduated from Temple University, USA. Both of them began establishing a graduate program, a Master of Arts in Communication Disorders. The program accepted the first generation of the students in 1976. Four year later, there was another one-year study program offered, a Certificate in Communication Disorders, to produce audio-technicians to be audiologist assistants. Both programs were gradually producing graduates in communication disorders. However, many problems occurred during that time such as inappropriate personnel to patient ratio which resulted in work over load, uncontrolled service quality by these personnel and other non-professionals, few research studies and innovations in communication disorders, a low number of instructors and so on. Afterward, the educational committee decided to stop the certificate program and tried to upgrade audio-technician to diploma and bachelor levels, respectively. In the meantime, a group of senior professionals concerned and raised the issue of professional licensing. They collected relevant information and presented it to the National Laws Committee. National licensing of communication disorder professionals began in 2002. All professionals were required to pass the national examination and applied for a license. In order to raise the standards and quality of educational programs in communication disorders, the educational committee agreed to establish the Bachelor of Science in Communication Disorder program in 2004 and updated the content of the Master of Science in Communication Disorder program. At present, the number of audiologists and speech pathologists is still far from the target requirement. The objectives of this presentation include a retrospective review of the communication disorders profession in Thailand, demonstration of current communication disorders curriculums, and human resources in this profession. Factors and problems will be discussed.