Master of Speech Pathology

All applicants:

Successful completion of an Australian bachelor degree (or equivalent).

Academic entry requirements

• Weighted Average Mark (WAM) of 70 (calculated across entire completed degree) in any of the following:
  • Australian bachelor level degree (or equivalent)
  • Australian masters by coursework degree (or equivalent)
  • Australian graduate diploma (or equivalent) Alternatively, applicants who have completed an Honours year (subsequent to a bachelor level degree) are eligible to apply with a minimum H2A grade

Inherent requirements

Behavioural and relational skills

Core requirement Students must be able to manage their own responses and behaviour to work effectively in a range of learning environments with diverse people and tasks. This includes the capacity to be receptive and respond appropriately to constructive feedback. Students should also be able to work with others in a team or group environment and make and maintain effective relationships with a wide range of individuals in order to complete tasks or for professional practice. See also Student behaviours policy for more information. Course-specific requirement

Speech Pathology students will be exposed to health and human service contexts in which they will encounter diversity and adversity and will be required to draw upon behavioural, emotional and relational skills to manage these situations in a professional manner. They must have the ability to recognise, interpret and respond appropriately to behavioural cues. Effective communication, including verbal and non-verbal communication is also fundamental to speech pathology practice and needs to be respectful, clear, attentive, empathetic, honest, and non-judgmental. Strong interpersonal communication skills are needed so that students can undertake speech pathology practice with clients who communicate, eat and drink in different ways. Strong written communication skills are needed so that students have the capacity to construct coherent written communication appropriate to the circumstances such as report writing and client notes. All these skills are needed so that students can continuously develop their speech pathology skills during placements and throughout their careers. Students must also be able to manage personal responses, beliefs, or preferences such that they can work with diverse groups of people who express varied cultural, religious and gender identities.

https://www.speechpathologyaustralia.org.au/SPAweb/Resources_For_Speech_Pathologists/Professional_Standards/Professional_Standards/SPAweb/Resources_for_Speech_Pathologists/CBOS/Professional_Standards.aspx?hkey=583a56af-74e0-4111-95fa-656502269967

Cognition

Students must be able to locate, acquire, retain and apply knowledge as part of their learning and for assessment. They must have the ability to sustain their attention over a designated period, maintain their focus in a variety of learning environments and remember information long enough to complete tasks in a reasonable and safe timeframe.

Safe and effective delivery of speech pathology practice is based on comprehensive knowledge that must be sourced, understood and applied appropriately, and includes conceptualising and using appropriate knowledge in response to academic assessment items. It also includes appropriately applying knowledge of theory, research evidence, policies and procedures in the class and practice settings. Literacy skills are required to: convey spoken and written messages accurately and effectively in a practice setting; paraphrase, summarise and reference in accordance with appropriate academic conventions in written assignments. Competent application of numeracy skills is also essential in speech pathology to facilitate the safe and effective delivery of care. Examples include interpreting standardised assessments accurately; counting the number of times a client stutters in a given time period and calculating the number of times a client produces a sound correctly.

Sensory (visual, auditory, tactile, olfaction)

Students should possess the ability to interact with visual, auditory or tactile inputs sufficiently to manage their learning environment and to meet professional performance needs.

Speech pathology students must be able to demonstrate adequate visual and auditory acuity for safe and effective delivery of care on clinical placements and throughout their careers. Visual acuity is required for students to detect subtle changes in a client's non-verbal communication skills, observe a communication environment and to assess and manage clients with reading comprehension and written expression needs. Auditory acuity is also essential for effective speech pathology practice. Tasks requiring auditory skills include the ability to detect different productions of speech sounds accurately, detect subtle changes in voice quality, the occurrence and frequency of stuttering, and word and grammatical errors during speech production.

Strength and mobility

Gross motor skills: Students should possess the strength, range of motion, coordination and mobility sufficient to manage their learning environment and ultimately, professional performance needs. Fine motor skills: Students should possess the manual dexterity and fine motor skills sufficient to manage their learning environment and ultimately, professional performance needs.

Speech pathology students require sufficient gross and fine motor skills to undertake effective assessment and management of clients with communication and swallowing disorders. Examples of gross motor skills that are important for speech pathology practice include standing next to a client to observe their swallow, moving to observe a communicative interaction, bending to observe the inside of a client's mouth, carrying assessment materials such as toys. Fine motor skills are required for a range of tasks including modifying foods and fluid for a swallowing assessment, demonstrating the use of alternative and augmentative communication devices, and being able to accurately produce speech sounds to model to clients.

International students:

English language requirements

7.5 IELTS (Academic) with no individual band less than 7.0.

IELTS and TOEFL and are the only English Proficiency tests accepted for entry into this course.

Please refer to our Language requirements page for details of other accepted English proficiency tests and additional recognised English language proficiency measures, such as English as the language of instruction.

After graduating, you'll be well placed to pursue speech pathology roles in hospitals, community health centres, private practice, schools, rehabilitation centres and aged-care centres. You could also work in areas such as health promotion, teaching, consulting and communication.

Possible roles include:

• Speech pathologist
  • Work with clients with communication and swallowing needs, learn what is important to them and work with them to design appropriate therapy plans.
• Paediatric speech pathologist
  • Provide assessment and treatment to young clients within clinics, private practice or schools.
• Communication Access
  • Work with services to enable them to be more inclusive and welcoming for people with communication and swallowing needs.
• Research speech pathologist
  • Develop a career as a researcher by undertaking a Masters by research or PhD in speech pathology. Design and conduct your own research study with a research supervisor