Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences

Our courses will inspire you and provide the skills and knowledge you need. Our graduates lead the way in their chosen careers. Our researchers are not just cutting-edge and world-leading, they actually make a difference in the real world. Our multidisciplinary staff team really cares.

Everyone deserves the opportunity to communicate.

The Division of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Queen Margaret University offers degree and diploma "pre-registration" courses leading to a professional qualification at undergraduate and postgraduate levels, as well as specialist postgraduate and continuing professional development qualifications.

These are relevant to Speech and Language Therapists, Audiologists, Sign Language Interpreters, and Academic Researchers. We have excellent records of employment for our graduates, and of research excellence. A QMU experience benefits our graduates who move on to a clinical career, take an entrepreneurial path, or excel in research. Use our course A-Z page to search for our undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

QMU is one of only 18 universities in the UK offering a recognised degree course towards a career in Speech and Language Therapy (RCSLT). Our courses are an innovative offering, designed to suit students with varied levels of prior experience and education. We offer both an integrated undergraduate Master of Speech and Language Therapy (MSLT) and a postgraduate MSc Speech and Language Therapy (Pre-Registration). Many staff are identified as having a significant responsibility for research by QMU, and were returned to REF-21.

We also offer a unique range of courses in Audiology. The teaching reflects the staff's active involvement in Audiology in many capacities. They hold advisory roles for National Quality Standards, have a wide variety of research interests, assist professional regulatory bodies and have links with many organisations working for deaf and hearing impaired adults and children. Find out more about the Aptitude Test for Hearing Aid Dispensing.

Finally, our Sign Language Interpreting strand offers CPD modules and an associated post-registration MSc in Advancing Practice in Signed/Spoken Language Interpreting. These draw on the team's own research and policy development expertise to provide opportunities for experienced signed/spoken language interpreters. You will have seen BSL interpreting on TV much more in recent years, and the team have been key in developing QMU's BSL Action Plan for BSL-using students throughout the university.

As you can see, the Division's lecturing staff represent a variety of backgrounds and professions. All are passionate about speech, language, hearing and communication.

Our research looks at speech, hearing and language (and their disorders) in a wide range of client groups, as well as these and related areas in the non-clinical population. See the Clinical Audiology, Speech and Language Research Centre for full details. Potential research students (MSc, PhD, Professional Doctorate) should take a look at the research projects on the right hand side of this page as well as more general information on research degrees (Master of Research, PhD, Professional Doctorate). We balance our research priorities to achieve both impact and innovation. Our blue skies research is cited world-wide by researchers, and the advanced technologies, methodologies and theoretical insights generated by our research are increasingly used in clinical environments.

In the Musselburgh campus we have audiology and speech therapy clinical facilities which can be used for training, demonstration and clinical research purposes. There is also an advanced Speech Research Laboratory with a wide range of equipment dedicated to the analysis of speech and disorders of communication: it is an internationally-recognised centre for research into both normal and disordered speech, supporting our own staff and students as well as visiting academics. These state-of-the art facilities and equipment have led to teaching resources like Seeing Speech and Dynamic Dialects. Our campus also hosts spin-out companies like Articulate Instruments Ltd and Fitvoice CIC.