Initially, the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences was established in 1969 as a division of the Department of Paediatrics under the UBC Faculty of Medicine. It was established as a School within the Faculty in 1981. For the first 13 years, the programme was funded by private foundation donations and research grants; in 1982, UBC assumed responsibility for most salaries and a portion of the non-salary budget. The size of the School remained constant for its first 20 years, with six faculty members and an average class size of 12. In 1987, the School received a Funds for Excellence Award from the provincial government – this allowed enrollment to double and led to the addition of three new faculty members. In 2008 the School relocated from the James Mather Building (later demolished) to renovated teaching and research spaces in the Friedman Building, allowing for expanded opportunities for research and education. As of 2013, the School of Audiology and Speech Sciences enrolled 35 new M.Sc. students each year and five to six Ph.D. students and two Post-doctoral Fellows. It had a university-based faculty of 15 and a clinical faculty complement of over 170.