ERIC Identifier: ED301140
Publication Date: 1988-00-00
Author: Glazer, Judith S.
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on
Higher Education Washington DC.
The Master's Degree. ERIC Digest.
The master's degree has been shaped by the traditional arts and science model
as the first postbaccalaureate degree conferred upon candidates following one
year of graduate study. It is the mid-point to the doctorate, the terminal
degree for most professions, and a source of enrichment in the chosen field of
study. It exceeds other graduate degrees in its diversity, validating successful
completion of a program in numerous disciplines and subfields of study. This
report reviews the research on the development of the master's degree in the
United States and its growth in the postwar technological era within the context
of tradition, diversity, and change. It synthesizes research on structure and
organization, curricular reform, quality control, and innovation, concluding
with recommendations for future research.
WHAT IS THE CURRENT STATUS OF THE MASTER'S DEGREE?
In
1982-83, 289,921 master's degrees in 30 disciplines and 633 specialties were
conferred, an increase of 75 percent in the past two decades (OERI 1985).
Professional master's degrees accounted for 84.2 percent of the total, liberal
arts master's degrees for 15.8 percent. Nearly three times as many master's
degrees were conferred in 1982-83 as the aggregate of first professional and
doctoral degrees, and more than half of them were awarded in education and
business. Teacher education, once the major field partly because of its
certifying role, has declined as a percentage of total degrees awarded.
Business, health sciences, computer science, psychology, and public affairs are
now the fastest-growing fields of study (OERI 1985). No longer can the graduate
school, confronted by new professional programs seeking autonomy from the
research model, function effectively as an academic "Bureau of Standards" (Pelikan 1983). State education boards, accrediting agencies, and professional
associations comment with increasing frequency on the problems of the
proliferation of degrees, while institutions mount efforts to attract
nontraditional clienteles to existing and new degree programs. The result is
uncertainty about the role of the university and the functions and purposes of
graduate and professional education and about the meaning of a generic degree of
such diversity that no single definition adequately describes its structure,
content, and goals.
HOW DIVERSIFIED IS THE MASTER'S DEGREE?
No single master's
degree exists, and its diversity has been a source of concern throughout this
century (Spurr 1970). The multiplicity and variety of professional programs,
combined with persistent efforts to differentiate these degrees from the
dominant arts and science model, have resulted in an avalanche of new titles
(OERI 1985). Curricular models reflect this diversity; they vary widely in
emphasis but generally include five major components-introductory core courses,
a major concentration in a subfield or specialty, cognate or elective courses to
expand and strengthen the program, an integrative experience, and a summative
experience. Master's degrees are classified as academic, professional, or
experiential, making comparisons difficult. Each discipline may have more than
one designation or title, numerous fields, subfields, or concentrations,
variable requirements for credit, different levels of degrees, and different
integrative and summative experiences. Efforts to conceptualize the master's
degree falter amid the continued proliferation of this level of program
development by professional groups and within institutions themselves. It is
only in the past decade that attention has been given to the important role of
professional schools, the nature of graduate education in the professions, and
the extraordinary diversification of the master's degree in certifying
professional achievement in a variety of areas (CGS 1979; Spurr 1970). In an
effort to bridge the gap between professional and nonprofessional disciplines,
it may be that the new paradigm of graduate education is the first professional
degree-a highly differentiated degree whose content and structure are based on
more utilitarian and measurable objectives and directed toward more immediate
outcomes that reflect contemporary societal values. The issue is not the
devaluation of the baccalaureate or the master of arts, but the new dominance of
professionalism at all levels, associate through doctoral degree.
HOW ARE STANDARDS MAINTAINED?
The past two decades have
witnessed an ongoing dialogue over how quality should be assessed. In graduate
and professional education, the master's degree has received little attention,
but recent research indicates that neither reputational ranking nor quantitative
assessments are adequate and that multidimensional indicators are needed to
assess this level of degree. The accrediting process has focused on two
concerns-educational quality and institutional integrity, attempting to
discourage proliferation and specialization, to define and monitor quality
within specific disciplines, and to measure educational outcomes. States have
reviewed academic programs as a means of coordinating, assessing, and
consolidating graduate programs. State oversight is more prevalent in public
than in private universities, and it is characterized by two kinds of problems:
the diversity of programs, which make generic criteria difficult to sustain, and
the perceived need for public institutions in particular to respond to the needs
of non-traditional clienteles (Pelczar and Solomon 1984). In an effort to
systematize the review of master's level programs, the Council of Graduate
Schools and the Graduate Record Examination Board have devised the Graduate
Program Self-Assessment Service for institutional self-study of programs or
departments.
WHAT ARE THE DOMINANT MODELS?
The major professional
degrees range from business, engineering, and public affairs to teacher
education, nursing, and library science, and they include many specialties
within each degree designation. The overriding issue in the literature on these
degrees is the dilemma between theory and practice-how to balance the need for
practical knowledge and training in a skill with the theoretical framework of
the field of study. The major issues are specialization or multidisciplinary
education, requirements for admission and for the degree, access and standards,
and modes of instruction and delivery. The inroads being made by corporate
colleges and other noncollegiate alternatives are a source of concern within the
academic community (Hugstad 1983). Business alone spends an estimated $40 to 60
billion a year on management training, much of it comparable to advanced degree
programs.
IS THERE ROOM FOR INNOVATION?
In the 1960s and early 1970s,
change was a function of the rapid expansion of graduate education, the
vocationalism of graduate students, and the introduction of public policies to
strengthen access and opportunity at all levels. Today, in a climate of
retrenchment, change is linked to the management of enrollments, to the market
for jobs, and to adherence to external and institutional standards. Graduate and
professional schools are seeking to respond to society's and individuals'
perceived needs and are encountering limited incentives with which to implement
new programs and demands from state and accreditation agencies for higher
standards, greater productivity, and more measurable outcomes (Folger 1984).
Disincentives to change go beyond the costs and benefits of implementing new
programs-to continuing preference for theoretical over applied programs,
vertical specialization over breadth, and established over emergent programs in
the status hierarchy (Pelczar and Solomon 1984). External degrees, experiential
learning, cooperative education, interinstitutional consortia, combined degrees,
interdisciplinary programs, and distance learning are some of the mechanisms and
strategies being implemented in graduate and professional programs with mixed
results.
A concerted effort is needed to focus on the master's degree-its academic
strengths and weaknesses, its diffuse character, and its importance in the
hierarchy of degrees. The master's degree is distinct from other graduate
degrees and needs to be analyzed as a class of degrees rather than as one
generic model. While its relationship to the baccalaureate and doctorate is
important, it is increasingly sought as a credential on its own merits. By
addressing the issues pervading this degree, we can modify and adapt various
models that strengthen postbaccalaureate education and suggest future parameters
for the master's degree.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Order ERIC documents by "ED" number
from the ERIC Document Reproduction Service, 3900 Wheeler Avenue, Alexandria, VA
22304. Specify paper copy (PC) or microfiche (MF) and number of pages. Call
1-800-227-ERIC.
Council of Graduate Schools in the United States.1979. "The Assessment of Quality in Master's Programs." Proceedings. College Park, MD, University of Maryland. ED 196 960. 195 pp. MF-$1.00; PC-$16.96.
Folger, John, ed. 1984. Financial Incentives for Academic Quality. New Directions for Higher Education No. 48. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Hugstad, Paul S. 1983. The Business School in the 1980s: Liberalism versus Vocationalism. New York: Praeger.
Judge, Harry. 1982. American Graduate Schools of Education: A View from Abroad. New York: Ford Foundation.
Office of Educational Research and Improvement. 1985. "Bachelor's Master's and Doctor's Degrees Conferred, by Field, 1982-83." Unpublished data. Washington. D.C.: Author. ED 179 198.60 pp. MF-$1.00; PC-$7.29.
Pelczar, Michael J., and Solomon, Lewis C., eds. 1984. Keeping Graduate Programs Responsive to National Needs. New Directions for Higher Education No. 46. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Pelikan, Jaroslav. 1983. Scholarship and Its Survival: Questions on the Idea of Graduate Education. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Spurr, Stephen H. 1970. Academic Degree Structures: Innovative Approaches. Principles of Reform in Degree Structures in the United States. Berkeley, Cal.: Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching.
NOTE: This ERIC Digest is a summary of The Master's Degree: Tradition,
Diversity, Innovation by the same author (ERIC ED 279 260).
