Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Bring your compassion and empathy to improve communication and lives
Study speech, language, and hearing, gain clinical skills, and bring your creativity and empathy to improving communication across the age span.
Gain the clinical and research skills to work with people from linguistically and culturally diverse populations across the age span. Help children with disabilities learn to communicate effectively. Help adults with hearing loss communicate effectively at home and at work. Help individuals with dementia and their families cope with debilitating illness. And fulfill your desire to make a profound difference in people’s lives.
At UMass, you’ll join a committed, compassionate community of faculty, staff, students, and alumni who, like you, strive to make a positive impact. Clinical graduate students have access to a variety of training opportunities through our on-campus clinic, the Center for Language, Speech, and Hearing.
Our degree programs offer superb value. Our students go on to work in education, healthcare, private practice, or in research, using advanced skills in areas like:
- American Sign Language
- Patient-Centered Care
- Hearing Technology
- Communication Strategies
- Implementation Science
Explore our programs
Undergraduate
Graduate
Certificate
Post-graduation employment rate
Job growth projections for speech language pathologists through 2031, much faster than average
Research Areas
Basic science and translational research in communication across the lifespan.
Benefits list
Make a difference in communication health
Our committed, compassionate, faculty and student body is dedicated to improving communication health and access. From the first-year undergraduate to the clinical fellow, our students bring their energy and creativity to the academic, research, and clinical parts of our fields.
Cutting-edge research
Get involved in innovative transdisciplinary research working with faculty whose expertise ranges from aphasia and autism to hearing technology.
Fully accredited
The MA in Speech-Language Pathology and Doctor of Audiology (AuD) programs are accredited by the Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).
Alumni spotlight
In the Spotlight
“UMass Amherst is a great place to study audiology because the faculty are very supportive. Any kind of audiology, whether it be hearing aid work, cochlear implant work, or even vestibular work, there’s placement that the department can help facilitate.”
Community stories
Rebecca Candido
Featured Faculty
Nathaniel Whitmal, III
Michael Starr
Jill Hoover
Graduate Program Director, Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Mary Andrianopoulos
Terrence Murray Commonwealth Honors College Professor
Principle Investigator and Director, Project IPREP
Akilah Heggs
In the News
Advancing Research in Hearing Healthcare Lab Seeks Adults for Study
The Advancing Research in Hearing Healthcare Lab is seeking participants aged 40 and older who own a hearing aid.
Engaging in Health Policy Decision Making
Seven SPHHS graduate students attended the Annual Student Forum, hosted by the Mass. Health Policy Forum, gaining insights into health policy decision making.
Ciullo Receives Awards to Support Dissertation Research to Improve Outcomes in School-Age Children with Communication Disorders
Brittany Ciullo has received a two-year, F31 award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to support her dissertation.
Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences
Preparing clinicians to work with individuals with communication disorders from linguistically and culturally diverse populations across the lifespan.