Log on to the UBC Faculty of Medicine website to read an article from 2014 regarding the expansion of the School’s Speech-Language Pathology program, a significant event in the School’s history!
Some excerpts are copied below…
September 16, 2014: “Big jump coming for UBC’s speech-language pathology program”
“The University of British Columbia will be educating more speech-language therapists, thanks to a boost in provincial funding.
The number of first-year slots for a Master’s of Science in Speech-Language Pathology will grow from 23 to 36 – a 56 per cent increase – by 2016, an expansion intended to help the one in 10 people in British Columbia who have a speech or language disorder.
The expansion of the program is intended to help alleviate the shortage of speech-language therapists in northern and rural B.C. The average wait in B.C. for infants or children to be assessed by a health authority-based speech language therapist is four to eight months.
The government of B.C. is providing $2.5 million in one-time funding for the expansion, and another $932,000 in annual operating funds.
“Most of us take the ability to communicate for granted, but for the thousands of British Columbians who have problems with speech, language or swallowing, speech therapists provide a bridge to the rest of the world,” said Amrik Virk, Minister of Advanced Education. “Adding 13 spaces to the training program at UBC will help meet the growing demand for qualified speech-language pathologists.”