A content analysis study on the entrance exam criteria for graduate education: An example of music education program

It is known that the quality of the students who want to get a master's or doctorate education also affects the quality of postgraduate education. Therefore, it is known that the criteria valid in the selection of candidates who will receive graduate education are also important. For this reason, it is important to examine and compare the exam criteria and to know the opinions of the lecturers who take part in the entrance exams to select students for graduate education on the exam criteria, both for the students who want to receive graduate education and for the lecturers who take part in the exam process. In the light of this information, the aim of the research is to examine the relationship between the entrance criteria to graduate music education and the opinions of the music education department heads. This is a qualitative study that examines the entrance criteria for graduate music education in universities and gathers the opinions of music education department heads. Document analysis was used to determine the criteria for graduate entrance exams, while content analysis and descriptive analysis were used to analyze the opinions of department heads. The study group consisted of the announcement texts of graduate entrance exams from 22 universities in Turkey that offer graduate music education, and 16 music education department heads who teach at these universities. The data for the announcement texts were obtained from the official websites of universities between June and September 2022, and the opinions of the department heads regarding the criteria were collected through a semi-structured interview form prepared by the researcher. According to the study results, there was diversity in the percentage effects and threshold scores of the criteria in graduate entrance exams of universities. It was observed that the universities and department heads generally had similar decisions regarding the percentage effect of ALES score, ALES threshold score, foreign language score percentage effect, foreign language threshold score, science exam score percentage effect, science exam threshold score, general success threshold score, written exam contents, oral, performance, and practice exam contents, and decisions regarding quotas. However, there were differences in the percentage effect of determined grade point average score, grade point average threshold score, written, performance, and practice exam percentage effect and threshold score, decisions regarding announcement texts among universities, and decisions of department heads regarding these criteria.