What is an audiologist?
Find out more about the exciting career of an audiologist and opportunities in the field.
Audiologists are specialists in hearing health care and provide diagnostic and rehabilitative services to individuals with hearing problems. They work with registered nurses, audiology assistants and other professionals in health care facilities and schools.
Specifically, audiologists specialize in the:
- Prevention
- Detection
- Assessment
- Rehabilitation of hearing disorders
Many audiologists fit and dispense hearing aids and give instructions on the use and care of hearing aids and are involved in programs which monitor and help prevent noise-induced hearing loss. Audiologists also coordinate newborn hearing screening programs to identify hearing impairment at an early age and counsel patients and their families on ways to adapt to hearing loss, such as by learning to lip read or by using American Sign Language.
The career requires a doctoral degree in audiology (AuD) along with supervised clinical practice. Audiologists must be licensed by the Council on Academic Accreditation in all states; requirements vary by state.
Audiologists can earn the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Audiology (CCC-A), offered by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. They also may be credentialed through the American Board of Audiology.
Find your career in audiology at KU
The high level of education and training provided to students at the University of Kansas prepares you well for a successful career in audiology. Our graduates secure leading roles in clinical practice, in school settings, in academia and many other areas.
See below the remarkable number of positions currently or formerly held by our graduates.
Graduates of our audiology program currently hold or have previously held the following positions in clinical settings:
- Alaska Center for Ear, Nose, & Throat (ACENT)
- American Institute of Balance
- Ascension Medical Group St. John Bartlesville
- Ascentist Physician Group
- Boys Town National Research Hospital
- Children's Mercy Hospital
- Hearing & Balance Specialists of KC
- Hearts for Hearing
- House Ear Institute
- Island Audiology, Hawaii
- Massachusetts’s Eye & Ear Infirmary
- Mid America Balance Institute
- Salina Regional Health
- Seaport Community Health Center
- Seattle ENT
- St. Luke's Health System
- Topeka ENT
- US Navy Medicine and Readiness Training Command, Yokosuka, Japan
- Veteran's Affairs Medical Centers
- Via Christie Medical Center
- Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Audiology Extern
Graduates of our audiology program currently hold or have previously held the following positions in management settings:
- Advanced Audiology of Greater Omaha, owner and audiologist
- Associated Audiologists, owner and audiologist
- Carl R. Darnell Army Medical Center, chief clinical audiologist
- Children's Mercy, director, hearing and speech department
- Hear Better Audiology, Taupo, New Zealand, owner and audiologist
- Hearing Doctors of Iowa, owner and audiologist
- Kansas Speech Language Hearing Association (KSHA), executive director
- Kaw Valley Hearing , owner and audiologist
- Navy Camp Lejeune, assistant department head occupational audiology
- University of Kansas Medical Center, director, neuroaudiology clinic
Graduates of our audiology program currently hold or have previously held the following positions in school settings:
- Greenbush multi district (KS)
- Millard School District
- Multi-District Deaf Hard of Hearing Program (MDDHP)
- Topeka Schools
Graduates of our audiology program currently hold or have previously held the following positions in industry settings:
- Advanced Bionics
- MED-EL
- Sivantos
- Oticon
- Phonak
- Starkey
Graduates of our audiology program currently hold or have previously held the following positions in academic settings:
- Boys Town, Nebraska, research assistant professor
- Missouri State University, associate professor
- University of Kansas, multiple faculty members
- University of Miami, post-doctoral fellow
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, clinical audiologist
- Washington University School of Medicine, assistant professor
- Wichita State University, clinical instructor