Master of Clinical Audiology : Student experience

Do you have a passion for helping people hear and be heard? As a Master of Clinical Audiology student, you will learn to enhance the communication ability of people of all ages and walks of life. Taught by quality educators and experienced clinicians, the Master of Clinical Audiology is the ideal program to set you on the path to further research, or a range of exciting careers.

You will join other like-minded students from a range of backgrounds in this fast-paced and challenging course. Over the two-year program, you and your tight-knit student community will experience high levels of clinical exposure. You will learn how technical knowledge can be applied to address the auditory health needs of the future, and experience some of the many rewards a career in audiology can provide.

Three highlights of the Master of Clinical Audiology

1. Day-to-day experience

As a student, you will work closely beside peers from a range of science backgrounds to develop specialised knowledge and technical skills. You will also enjoy the benefit of learning with students from diverse education backgrounds, including information technology, music, psychology, linguistics, physiotherapy and speech pathology.

Through the program, you will have the privilege of working closely with experienced clinicians currently practicing in the field. This exposure will continually enrichyour overall experience and prepare you for the challenges of working life in the industry.

2. Learning mode

Throughout the program, you will engage with challenging coursework and clinical experience in a supportive and helpful environment. You will immerse yourself in learning modules that will complement your end research or career goals, and others that will challenge you to broaden your horizons.

The course takes a pragmatic approach to learning. With experienced clinicians in every area of audiology at the helm, you will learn from a range of experts who can offer deep insights into everyday practice.

Clinician-client interaction training will be part of your studies from day one. This early and continual exposure to real-life clinical conditions will ready you to have ongoing impact on people’s lives.As a student of this program, you are offered invaluable on-the-job training at The University of Melbourne’s Onsite Clinic.

3. Opportunities

Clinical Audiology is a career that involves in-depth understanding between both clinician and client. Recently declared the number one health issue by the World Health Organisation (WHO), advances in audiology present many opportunities for you to contribute to the wellbeing of patients both locally and globally.

Through The University of Melbourne and its affiliated institutions, you will have access to tele-health consultations with nurses in remote overseas locations, such as Cambodia, alongside international placement opportunities in Asia and Africa.

Read about Emma's experience:

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Emma Webb

After working as an exercise physiologist for five years I was ready for something new. I still wanted to help people and I was after a scientific challenge, so I chose audiology.

I have hearing loss myself (I have cochlear implants) so growing up I visited the audiologist a lot. Back then I didn’t think I’d make it a career though!

The course is very placement oriented, so you get good exposure to lots of different aspects of audiology, from paediatrics to adult diagnostics and rehab. And because the University has a teaching clinic, we often did placement with our lecturers and supervisors which was really beneficial.

I came in thinking I wanted to work with cochlear implants but the placements exposed me to so many more options, and helped me realise audiology is much more diverse than I first thought.

The teaching was wonderful. My supervisors were really passionate and incredibly supportive. And the other students were great too – it’s a small cohort so you get to know everyone, and you do placement in pairs so we all ended up quite close.

A highlight for me was spending a week volunteering in Cambodia. We worked at the children’s surgical centre with the local ear, nose and throat specialist and audiology nurses. It was very hard work but definitely a life-changing experience.

I’ve just finished the course and now I’m doing a PhD, balancing my time between working in clinic and doing research with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. We’re looking into developing a screening tool for newborns to detect cytomegalovirus – a virus that’s the leading infectious cause of permanent hearing loss in babies.

I love balancing research and clinical work. I’ve definitely found the challenge I was looking for.

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