Motivation to study speech and hearing: A survey of undergraduate students in India

Purpose: India does not have sufficient speech and hearing professionals to cater the large population with communication disorders. Understanding student’s motive to take up professional training in the field of speech and hearing will help administrators and policy makers to strategies to get more students. The study aimed to identify factors that influence students to choose Bachelor of Audiology and Speech-language Pathology (B.ASLP). Materials and Methods: A 10-item questionnaire on Google Form was answered by undergraduate students pursuing training in audiology and speech-language pathology from different institutions across India. The responses of the students were analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results: In total, 1018 students from 37 colleges responded that they joined speech and hearing programs because the field is related to medical profession (47%); has good career prospects (36.9%); and that it enables them to serve the disabled population (30.4%). B.ASLP was the first choice for study for as many as 48.5% of the students. Conclusion: As students in India need to make a major academic decision in their eleventh year of schooling to choose between science, commerce, and arts, the institutes offering B.ASLP must orient and create awareness among high-school students to attract them to the speech and hearing field.