Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University has begun enrolment for Ukraine’s first master’s programme in speech and language therapy. This is a new field of training for healthcare professionals, designed to provide a modern level of care for people with communication and swallowing disorders. The programme will start in October 2025 and will be delivered in a blended format.
The programme focuses on training speech and language therapists who will work with patients of all ages. They will help restore speech after a stroke or traumatic brain injury, work with stuttering, speech disorders in dementia and other conditions that affect a person’s ability to communicate or swallow food safely.
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According to Oksana Lyalky, head of the Ukrainian Society for Speech and Language Therapy, these new specialists will become an important part of multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams and will be able to work as independent specialists. She emphasises that the demand for such professionals is growing, as they help not only children with congenital disorders, but also soldiers who have suffered injuries.
The training will be conducted by international experts from Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States, as well as Ukrainian therapists who have completed the first intensive training programme and received recommendations from foreign teachers. The goal of the master’s programme is to train a generation of specialists capable of providing assistance in accordance with global evidence-based practices.
As Anastasia Boichuk, strategic leader of the “Rehabilitation of War Injuries in Ukraine” initiative of the “Patients of Ukraine” Charitable Foundation, points out, the emergence of this new profession is a response to the real needs of people who face difficulties with communication or swallowing.
Admission to the programme is open to masters in psychology, philology and medical psychology, as well as to bachelors and masters in special education with a qualification in speech therapy. Applicants will take a single entrance exam and a professional test.
The programme is being implemented with the support of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, Ivano-Frankivsk National Medical University, the Ukrainian Society for Speech and Language Therapy, the Patients of Ukraine Charitable Foundation. It also involves the Belgian Agency for International Cooperation Enabel.
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