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The M.S. program in computer science

Author:

Alfs T. BerztissAuthors Info & Claims

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 1

Pages 61 - 69

https://doi.org/10.1145/953030.809554

Published: 01 January 1979 Publication History

Abstract

The need for graduates from master's programs in computer science and related areas is well recognized [19, 20]. Indeed, some companies have a policy of extensively utilizing master's programs at universities for the continuing education of their employees. The Graduate Study Program of Bell Laboratories is well known. At Honeywell Information Systems it has been found that support of continuing studies at the master's level helps in hiring and retaining personnel, and is beneficial to the dissemination of new technology through the organization [29]. It has been demonstrated that programmers acquire new knowledge primarily from other programmers [17]; periodic influx into an organization of graduates of programs of advanced study is therefore essential if the organization is to retain technical soundness.

Universities have responded to this need, but in a rather haphazard manner, with the result that we have today a variety of programs, some of which have very little to do with computer science. Some of the programs are no more than, to use Smoliar's [41] words, “undergraduate programs for grown-ups.” Others are viewed as a first stage in the preparation for research careers of narrow specialization. Late in 1972 Terry Walker [45] conducted a poll of master's degree granting departments. The four primary objectives of a master's program given by the 93 respondents were: prepare a person for a job designing computer software systems, prepare a person for a job as a systems analyst, prepare a person to pursue a doctoral degree in computer science, prepare a person for a job as a scientific programmer. Today one would add a fifth objective: prepare a person for teaching computer science at the junior college level. There is clearly a need to reconcile these different objectives with a unified view of computer science.

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Cited By

Pan LXu B(2010)Towards Collaborative Master Student Talent Development with E-CARGO ModelInformation Technology Journal10.3923/itj.2010.1031.10379:5(1031-1037)Online publication date: 1-May-2010
https://doi.org/10.3923/itj.2010.1031.1037
Eerkes G(1991)Profiling computer science master's programsCommunications of the ACM10.1145/99977.9999934:1(100-109)Online publication date: 3-Jan-1991
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/99977.99999
Magel KAusting RBerztiss AEngel GHamblen JHoffmann AMathis R(1981)Recommendations for master's level programs in computer scienceCommunications of the ACM10.1145/358568.35857524:3(115-123)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/358568.358575

Index Terms

The M.S. program in computer science
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education
      2. Model curricula

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Published In

cover image ACM SIGCSE Bulletin

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 11, Issue 1

Proceedings of the 10th SIGCSE symposium on Computer science education

February 1979

251 pages

ISSN:0097-8418

DOI:10.1145/953030

Issue’s Table of Contents

SIGCSE '79: Proceedings of the tenth SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
January 1979
251 pages
ISBN:9781450374316
DOI:10.1145/800126
Chairmen:
Douglas Kerr,
John F. Dalphin

Copyright © 1979 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 January 1979

Published in SIGCSE Volume 11, Issue 1

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Cited By

Pan LXu B(2010)Towards Collaborative Master Student Talent Development with E-CARGO ModelInformation Technology Journal10.3923/itj.2010.1031.10379:5(1031-1037)Online publication date: 1-May-2010
https://doi.org/10.3923/itj.2010.1031.1037
Eerkes G(1991)Profiling computer science master's programsCommunications of the ACM10.1145/99977.9999934:1(100-109)Online publication date: 3-Jan-1991
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/99977.99999
Magel KAusting RBerztiss AEngel GHamblen JHoffmann AMathis R(1981)Recommendations for master's level programs in computer scienceCommunications of the ACM10.1145/358568.35857524:3(115-123)Online publication date: 1-Mar-1981
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/358568.358575

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