Chaos or Order? Some Thoughts on the Transition to a Professional Doctorate in Audiology.

here has been much concern for the future direction of the profession of audiology over the past decade, but especially since the development and advocacy of the professional doctorate in audiology, the AuD. Goldstein (1989) first published a 6-year model for the AuD that, although altered considerably in detail, remains the blueprint for “the” AuD degree. Probably one of the more significant alterations to the original model has been the move to an 8-year model (4 years postbaccalaureate), such as the one endorsed recently by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA, 1991). After careful consideration and deliberation of a variety of alternative educational models, an expanded 6-year bachelor’s/master’s framework was proposed by the authors and several colleagues as a costeffective transitional solution to the educational growing pains confronting the field of audiology (Humes et al., 1992; Humes, Diefendorf, Stelmachowicz, Fowler, & Gordon-Salant, 1993). The 6-year AuD model of Goldstein (1989) and the proposed 6-year bachelor’s/master’s framework of Humes et al. (1993) are very similar, as was noted in the latter article. In Goldstein’s model, however, preprofessional students enrolled directly in the AuD program after 2 years of undergraduate preparation, and Larry E. Humes Indiana University, Bloomington