Abstract:
Texas A&M University provides its students with a program in agriculture allowing them the opportunity to acquire a professional problem-solving degree. This program is called the Master of Agriculture. In order to assess the quality of the Master of Agriculture program and to obtain curriculum suggestions, a survey of Master of Agriculture graduates from the Department of Animal Science between 1980 and 1995 was conducted in the fall of 1995. Forty-four students responded out of 98 possible respondents. The results indicated an overall positive attitude toward the degree program with the majority of respondents suggesting the addition of courses or an increased number of required hours in the areas of computer science, veterinary science, finance, and management. The survey was structured after a survey published in 1980 by W.W. Miller for comparison. The current results were not significantly different in the areas of people and factors influencing the graduates' decision to pursue a Masters degree. The surveys were also not significantly different in the reasons for pursuing a Masters of Agriculture instead of a Masters of Science. Students' feelings regarding the value of the internship have not changed over the years with the majority holding the internship as having much or great value; but Miller's survey found students had more interest in technical writing, speech, and agronomy, while the current survey found the courses mentioned above more beneficial to graduates.
Keywords:
opinion survey, master of agriculture, results comparison, Texas A&M University
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