The M.S. program in computer science

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.