The Department of Speech and Language Therapy of the University of Patras was established in May 2019, incorporating the students, faculty and staff of the corresponding Department of the Technological Educational Institute of Western Greece, which was founded in 1996, in the former T.E.I. of Patras. It is the first of the three Departments of Higher Education in Greece to offer an undergraduate degree in Speech and Language Therapy.

The objective of the Department is to educate students on the biological processes of communication (language, speech, voice) and swallowing, on the prevention, assessment, intervention and scientific study of human communication and its disorders, and to serve the community of individuals with communication disorders or differences.

 There are two research labs in the Department:

  1. ‘Theoretical & Experimental Linguistics: typical acquisition and impairments’,
  2. ‘Speech, Voice & Augmentative Alternative Communication Technology’.

The undergraduate curriculum is formulated and dynamically adjusted following the current scientific advances and abiding by the standards developed by the International and European Speech and Language Pathology organizations, including:

  1. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
  2. The Standing Liaison Committee of E.U. Speech and Language Therapists and Logopedists (CPLOL)
  3. The International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics (IALP)

The Department has participated in the Network for Tuning Standards and Quality of Education programs in Speech and Language Therapy across Europe (NetQues).  The network was funded by the European Union and aimed at the comparative analysis of the Speech and Language Therapy curriculum of 65 institutions in 31 European Countries.

Vision Statement:

  1. The Department of Speech and Language Therapy will continue to provide academic and clinical education of the highest standards in order to maintain a high entry score requirement for admission to the program and the highest graduate employment rate of the three Departments of Speech and Language Therapy in Greece.
  2. The Department will continue to constitute a benchmark in the community, and in a national level, for speech, language, communication and swallowing disorders via the Clinic of Speech and Language Therapy and the academic knowledge and clinical experience of its faculty members.
  3. The Department will dynamically evolve and advance via the expansion of its human resources and related infrastructure in order to: a) enhance the quality of its program in line with the ongoing advances in the field of Speech and Language Pathology and b) continue to engage in research activity that will steadily expand, improve in quality, and involve all faculty members of the department.
  4. The Department will continue to be regarded as the leading program in Greece for the academic and clinical education of speech-language pathology students and will continue to prepare successful clinicians who demonstrate excellence in the prevention, assessment and intervention of speech, language, voice and swallowing disorders.