The evaluation of postgraduate thesis on graphic design in the department of art education in Turkey

The aim of this research is to examine the graduate theses written about ''Graphic Design'' in the Department of Fine Arts Education, Department of Painting and Art Education in Turkey within the scope of their basic qualifications. Therefore, the research was examined by using the document analysis method, one of the qualitative research methods, in the Higher Education Council (YÖK) database with the keyword ''Fine Arts Education Department'', ''Painting and Drawing Education Department'', ''Graphic''. Accordingly 72 records were found. It was determined that 55 theses in the records were related to Graphic Design by reading the summary sections and 55 theses were included in the scope of the research. It covers graduate theses published until 2024. The relevant theses were examined in terms of university, institute, type, year, written language, number of advisors, title of theses supervisor, gender, gender of the researchers, method and subject orientations. The results of this research were expressed as frequency and percentage with the SPSS program. It was concluded that certain universities stood out in graduate studies in the field of Graphic Design, researches were concentrated in Educational Sciences Institutes. In addition to that Master's theses were written most, the written language of all theses were Turkish, and most theses were published in 2022. In general, during the research only one thesis supervisor was selected, faculty members with high academic titles such as professor doctor were selected in thesis supervisor selection, male thesis supervisors were preferred. On the other hand, female researchers are more than male researches, qualitative and mixed methods were used. It was concluded that the focus was on certain issues. In this research, it is recommended to increase the number of graduate theses, especially doctoral theses, in the field of Graphic Design.