Educational needs of international graduate students as perceived by University of Missouri-Columbia graduate faculty members

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to assess the importance and the satisfaction of selected curricular, research, and academic advisement needs of international graduate students as perceived by graduate faculty members in the University of Missouri-Columbia Colleges of Agriculture and Education. Differences in perceptions between the selected Colleges as well as characteristics which influenced perceptions of the needs were analyzed.;Procedures. Graduate faculty members were randomly selected to respond to a questionnaire developed for the study. Cronbach's alpha was used to estimate instrument reliability. Hypotheses were tested using mean calculations and multiple analysis of variance procedures.;Findings. Curricular and research needs were perceived as most important in Agriculture, and curricular needs were perceived as most important in Education. Curricular needs were perceived as least satisfied in both Colleges.;Significant differences in perceptions were found between the Colleges regarding the importance and the satisfaction of the needs. Perceptions in regard to the importance of the research needs were found to differ significantly between the Colleges. The research needs were perceived as being more important in Agriculture.;Conclusions. Perceptions held by the Agriculture and Education graduate faculty members concerning the selected educational needs of international graduate students (a) differ in regard to the importance and the satisfaction of the needs, (b) differ in that the needs pertaining to research are more important in Agriculture, and (c) are not affected by degree of involvement with international graduate students and duration of international experience.