Gerontology Graduate Training in North America: Shifting Landscapes, Innovation and Future Directions

As the Canadian population ages it is anticipated there will be an increased demand for students with advanced training in gerontology. In today's highly fluid and competitive environment, the challenge for gerontology graduate programs will be how to attract the best and brightest students and provide them with the knowledge base and skillsets that they will need in order to be successful. Yet, very little research has been conducted on the state of gerontology graduate education in North America with a focus on Canadian programs. Given this gap, the purpose of this report is to: a) report on current trends in gerontology graduate education and b) highlight innovations and potential future directions for the discipline in general, and the Simon Fraser University (SFU) graduate programs in gerontology, more specifically. This report was funded by the SFU, Dean of Graduate Studies SCORE program: Strengthening the Core Fund for Innovation in Graduate Education. For this project a total of 40 eligible English language gerontology graduate programs (doctoral or master's level) offered by Canadian or American universities were identified. Interviews were conducted with 23/40 universities and data were collected on a number of topics such as target students, marketing and publicity methods, and program requirements. Some supplementary data were also collected from online information sources. Of the universities in the sample, 10 offer doctoral level programs (total of 12 programs) and 20 offer master's level programs (total of 24 programs). Eight of the universities are Canadian and fifteen are American.