Practices and opinions reported by coordinators of graduate programs

Abstract

ABSTI~C'r. Information is presented about the organization of graduate studies, based on questionnaire responses of 582 coordinators of Canadian graduate programs. These coordinators, who were representative of disciplines and geographic regions, provided information about a wide range of matters, including enrolments, staff, admissions, supervision, research, publications, financial support, teaching experience, and completion rates and times. Many substantial differences were noted among the percentage frequencies of responses for departments classified by discipline and size. For example, students were perceived to choose their doctoral theses topics themselves much more frequently in education, social sciences, and humanities than in engineering, medical sciences, physical sciences, and biological sciences. Also, departments with smaller numbers of full-time graduate students tended to provide all doctoral students with some teaching experience to a greater extent than did larger departments.

Orientations to research higher degree supervision

“…The research response to these issues has centred on matters related to policy and administration (Becher et al 1994;Holdaway et al 1994;Martin et al 2001;Kemp 2002;Pearse 2002) and on details of supervisory praxis (Parry and Hayden 1994;Holdaway 1997a, b;Pole et al 1997;Brockbank and McGill 1998;Pearson 1999). Despite attempts to define and encourage good practice (e.g., Zuber-Skerritt and Ryan 1994), problems persist.…”

Supervision of Graduate Students

“…After surveying aspects of graduate education in Canadian universities, Holdaway, Deblois, and Winchester (1994) reported several differences between disciplines. The most notable were, first, transfer to a doctoral program without completing the master's program is substantially more common in Medicine, Biology, and Physical Sciences than in other discipline areas.…”