Degree course in Speech and language therapy [L/SNT2] D. M. 270/2004
General information
Qualification awarded
Degree in Speech Therapy
Level of qualification
First Cycle
Specific admission requirements and specific arrangements for recognition of prior learning
Access to the program is limited to a programmed number of students and is determined on the basis of an entrance exam. Students wishing to enroll in the speech therapy program must have a secondary school diploma or other equivalent diploma attained abroad and recognized as suitable. Students must also have an adequate basic preparation as provided by current provisions regarding access to limited-access courses planned on the national level. The planned number of students who may enroll in the first year is determined in accordance with current law.
The deadline for enrolment in the first year is established by the announcement of the admission exam for university programs in the health professions (Law N. 264 of 2 August 1999) activated at the Università degli Studi di Perugia.
Profile of the programme
Graduates of the speech therapy program must achieve the skills defined in their specific professional profile. Specifically, with regard to the health profession of speech therapist, graduates are health care professionals as defined by decree N. 74 of 14 September 1994 and successive modifications and amendments issued by the Ministry of Health, which is to say that they perform their activities in the prevention and rehabilitative treatment of speech and communication pathologies in childhood, adulthood, and old age. The activity of speech therapy graduates is aimed at the education and re-education of all pathologies that provoke disturbances of the voice, speech, oral and written language, and communication handicaps. With reference to the diagnosis and prescription of the physician, they elaborate, alone or as part of a multi-disciplinary team, within the sphere of their competence, the patient’s speech assessment aimed at the identification and successful treatment of the health deficit of the disabled person; carry out autonomously therapeutic activity for the functional re-education of communicative and cognitive disabilities, utilizing habilitative and rehabilitative verbal and non-verbal logopedic therapies for communication and language; propose the adoption of speech aids, train patients in their use, and verify their effectiveness; perform activities of research, teaching, and professional consulting in the health services and other agencies where their professional skills are required; verify the appropriateness of the rehabilitative method adopted to the objective of functional recovery; perform their professional activities in health agencies, public or private, as dependent employees or self-employed professionals.
Qualification requirements and regulations
The degree program consists of a total of 180 ECTS credits, distributed over three years of study, of which at least 60 must be acquired in training activities aimed at the development of specific professional capacities.
The program is organized in 6 semesters and 20 courses, which are assigned a specific number of ECTS credits by the degree program council in accordance with the provisions of the table of required courses and training activities. The degree program in speech therapy has only one curriculum.
The courses and training activities, organized in semesters, may take the form of lecture courses, exercises, practical activities, seminars, internships and the final exam.
All of the rules regarding the organization and management of the study path for the degree program are described in the university teaching regulations (regolamento didattico) available on the faculty website.
Key learning outcomes
Knowledge and capacity for understanding
Upon completion of the degree program, speech therapy graduates must demonstrate knowledge and capacity for understanding in the following fields:
- biomedical sciences for the understanding of the physiological and pathological processes connected to the development of the alternations of voice, pronunciation, language, fluency, hearing and deglutition of patients in the various stages of life;
- psycho-social sciences and the humanities for understanding the cognitive and social aspects of communication as well as the psychological, relational, and cultural dynamics correlated to disturbances of speech, language, hearing and deglutition; theories of learning in order to improve their understanding of educative processes directed to the citizenry or single patients;
- general and specific logopedic sciences for the understanding of the fields for logopedic intervention, the methods of evaluation of communicative and hearing functions, rehabilitative methodologies of intervention and the evidence that guides decision-making;
- ethical, legal, and sociological sciences for understanding the organizational complexity of the Health System, the importance and the utility of acting in conformity with the law and directives as well as respecting the values and ethical dilemmas which present themselves from time to time in the exercise of the profession; the study of these sciences is also aimed at understanding professional autonomy, and the areas of interaction and interdependence with other professions and other members of the treatment team;
- hygienic-preventative sciences for understanding the determinants of health, risk factors, individual and collective prevention strategies, and initiatives aimed at promoting the safety and security of health professionals and patients.
Capacity to apply knowledge and understanding (know-how)
Speech therapy graduates must demonstrate knowledge and the capacity to understand the following processes:
- utilize their clinical knowledge and linguistic theories to ascertain alterations in language, cognitive abilities, and deglutition, the effects of hearing loss on the development of communication.
- select and utilize appropriate evaluation procedures, availing themselves of valid psychometric-instruments;
- analyze and accurately interpret data gathered during testing, by integrating it with information on the patient’s history;
- integrate the knowledge, skills, and aptitudes of logopedics in order to effect safe and effective evidence-based rehabilitative treatment;
- develop appropriate therapeutic and rehabilitative treatment plans with measurable and achievable objectives, adapting them to the different ages and taking account of cultural and linguistic differences;
- measure and evaluate patient performance in collaboration with the treatment team;
- modify the treatment plan on the basis of patient needs;
- assume responsibility in providing logopedic interventions in conformity with professional standards of quality, in consideration of the legal and ethical implications and the rights of the assisted person;
- utilize pedagogical and psychological approaches to motivate patients to participate in treatment and propose effective educational strategies.
Professional Autonomy and Decision-making (making judgments)
Speech therapy graduates must demonstrate autonomous judgment through the following abilities:
-effect rehabilitative logopedic therapies while recognizing and respecting the dignity, the culture, the values, and the rights of single individuals;
- utilize critical thinking to provide effective treatment to patients of all ages;
- assume responsibility for their own acts performed during their professional practice in conformity with the deontological code of their profession and ethical and legal standards;
- demonstrate awareness of the influence of their own feelings, values, and prejudices in relating to patients and making decisions.
Communication skills
Speech therapy graduates must develop the following communications skills:
- listen, inform, and dialogue with patients and family members effectively and clearly;
- communicate, explain, and justify their acts and decisions with colleagues and other professionals;
- adapt their communication according to the context and in respect of the cultural, ethnic, and ideological differences of the persons they assist;
- enact techniques of logopedic counseling for communication in problematic areas, to activate resources and the client’s capacity to respond and involve the family and caregivers in the rehabilitative process
Learning Skills
Speech therapy graduates must develop the following learning skills:
- independent study;
- autonomy in searching for information necessary to resolving problems or uncertainty in professional practice, by consulting current literature and favoring its application in logopedic practice;
- demonstrate knowledge of research methods related to issues and problems of speech therapy;
- demonstrate the capacity to seek out and profit from opportunities for self-learning;
- demonstrate the capacity for self-evaluation of their own skills and define their own development and learning needs.
Examination regulations, assessment and grading
The degree program council (CCL) establishes the type and number of exams needed to evaluate student performance and, on the proposal of Course Coordinators, the composition of the exam commissions. The overall total of curricular exams shall not exceed the number of official courses established by the regulations and must not in any case exceed the number twenty in the three years of the course.
Learning evaluation may be conducted through instructive evaluations or certifying evaluations.
Instructive evaluations:
- midterm exams: intended to measure the effectiveness of learning and teaching processes with respect to certain didactic content or subjects;
Certifying evaluations
- suitability: courses held in different semesters or years there may be a certifying evaluation that permits t
the recognition of credits for the student’s academic career;
- course exams: aimed at evaluating, and quantifying with a mark, the student’s achievement of the overall course objectives, certifying the student’s level of individual preparation.
Individual exams must be taken during designated exam periods.
The final degree exam, as provided by art. 6, par. 3 of Leg. Dec. 502/92 and subsequent amendments and modifications, is recognized as the public qualifying exam.
The final degree exam consists of:
- the discussion of an original thesis elaborated under the guidance of a faculty supervisor; there may also be a faculty co-supervisor.
- a practical trial during which the student must demonstrate to have acquired the theoretical-practical and technical-operational knowledge and skills of the specific professional profile.
To be admitted to the final degree exam, students must:
The commission shall be composed of at least 7 and no more than 11 members named by the Rector on proposal of the Degree Program Council and includes at least two members designated by the most representative professional associations selected according to law.
The final mark for the degree, expressed on a scale of 110, will be determined according to the following parameters:
a) the average of the marks obtained on exams for curricular courses, elective courses, and internships, expressed on a 110 point scale;
b) the points attributed by the Degree Commission on occasion of the presentation and discussion of the thesis, obtained by calculating the average of the points assigned by all members of the commission (from 0 to 6 points);
c) the mark attributed to the practical trial (from 0 to 4 points);
d) points attributable to the academic career (2 points if the course is completed in three years with at least three honors, 1 point if the course is completed in three years with less than three honors);
e) other points attributed to other educational/training experiences (Erasmus, etc.), at the discretion of the commission.
Honors may be attributed on the unanimous vote of the commission to candidates who achieve a final mark of 110 or more.
The final degree exam may be repeated only once.
Graduation requirements
The final degree is awarded upon completion of 180 credits and successful completion of the final exam.
Mode of study (full-time, part-time, e-learning, ...)
Full-time enrollment only and regular attendance is obligatory.
In order to be take the exam for any individual course at the first available exam session the student must present a signed certificate of least 75% attendance of the required didactic activities for the course.
Enrolment in each successive year of the program is allowed only for those students who have attended at least 75% of the formal didactic activities, have completed the hours of their internship, and have successfully completed with a positive evaluation the internship and all the exams of the preceding year.
Given the attendance requirement, part-time enrolment is not an option.
Occupational profiles of graduates with examples
Speech therapy graduates conduct their professional activities in public and private health and social welfare agencies, both as dependent employees and self-employed professionals.
Specifically, professional opportunities are to be found:
- in hospitals, both in-patient and out-patient;
- in highly specialized rehabilitative services;
- in structures for post-acute care or long-term care, assisted living residences, rehabilitation centers, assistance centers for the disabled;
- in community health agencies, home-care and out-patient clinics;
- in public health and diseases prevention services
Access to further studies
The 3-year degree meets the requirements for admission to advanced degree program “Rehabilitative Sciences” as well as first-level master’s programs, specialization programs, and continuing education programs.