SURVEY OF COURSE CURRICULA OF GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN SOCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE

As the basis of designing an advanced research methods course for grad uate students in social and administrative sciences, a national survey of similar graduate programs was conducted. The survey was developed to gather information regarding research methods courses in the respon dents' programs as well as other curricular data. Both graduate studen ts and graduate program chairs were surveyed. Specific objectives for the project included: (i) determine core/required courses of these gra duate programs; (ii) determine specific amounts of emphasis graduate p rograms place upon specific subject areas; (iii) determine where and h ow students obtain knowledge of specific content areas; (iv) determine importance to the graduate program and the level of preparation provi ded by the graduate program in specific content areas; and (v) compare Master's and Doctoral students' responses on the aforementioned areas . Examples of the twelve subject areas included: economics, health car e policy, business administration. sociology, psychology, and pharmace utical care. The twelve content areas referred to topics of methodolog y and statistics that may have been taught in a research methods cours e in any of the subject areas. Eighty percent (28/35) of the graduate program chairs responded, while only 42 percent (131/314) of graduate students returned surveys. Findings from this study provided an overvi ew of the course content of graduate programs in the social and admini strative sciences and may prompt further study to examine specific con tent of those programs and differences among schools.