BSc (Hons) Language and Linguistics: An alternative route to Speech and Language Therapy (SLT)
Do you have students who aspire to become Speech and Language Therapists; who have applied to Speech and Language Therapy and not received an offer; or who have been rejected by Speech and Language Therapy because they have not achieved a higher enough score on the HPAT test?
These students typically fall into two camps: those who are committed to working in any kind of therapeutic setting, and those who are very specifically focused on Speech & Language Therapy.
For the latter students, we would like to draw your attention to the Language & Linguistics degree in the School of Communication and Media at Ulster University. Linguistics is one of the key disciplines that underpins the work of a Speech Therapist and so is well recognized as an ideal alternative route to eventual qualification in speech and language therapy. Hence, a significant proportion of our graduates successfully proceed to postgraduate professional training in speech therapy.
In practice, our advice would be that students who are particularly focused on speech therapy as their career path should consider choosing BSc (Hons) Language & Linguistics as their insurance choice. However, we would also like to draw your attention to the fact that students who did not originally select Language and Linguistics, but find that their application to SLT is not successful, can still at this stage apply to Language & Linguistics. In what follows, we present a few frequently asked questions regarding the relationship of the two disciplines and how to qualify as an SLT after studying Language and Linguistics.
You can also watch a video by the Language and Linguistics course director, Dr Christina Sevdali: https://vimeo.com/403698534
Why would I take linguistics first instead of direct entry to SLT?
Opting for a linguistics degree followed by postgraduate vocational qualification gives you much more flexibility in your final career choice. A significant proportion of the students who start a linguistics degree intending to go on to speech therapy change their minds at some point during the degree. This can be for a number of reasons: for example, some students realise that they did not have a realistic picture of the technical and analytical skills involved in speech therapy practice; some students develop interests in other professions or other applications of the linguistics degree, such as teaching or audiology.
Is a postgraduate place guaranteed after the degree?
No. It is important to be aware that entry into postgraduate SLT is just as competitive as direct entry into undergraduate SLT. You will need to get at least an upper second degree classification and several of the postgraduate courses require you also to spend a year gaining experience in between your undergraduate degree and entry to the postgraduate course. You will also need to build your overall profile during your degree as relevant experience will be as important in the application process as your academic marks. Most of our graduates who have been committed to SLT have, nonetheless, succeeded in getting a postgraduate place on a speech therapy course.
For more information about BSc (Hons) Language and Linguistics, please visit our course page.