Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology - Doctor of Philosophy - PHD - Postgraduate / Graduate Program - UBC Grad School

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Overview

The MERM Program is dedicated to advancing the science and practice of measurement, program evaluation, and research methodology in the social and behavioral sciences (e.g., Psychology, Education, Quality of Life Studies, Health Studies). For more than 25 years, the faculty and students of the MERM program have been contributing to its international reputation as a leader in the field. Our students and faculty have done research in human and health services, psychological, educational, community and health settings.

For specific program requirements, please refer to the departmental program website

What makes the program unique?

The MERM Program is the only Program in Canada, and among a short list in North American, in which the students are awarded a degree in "Measurement, Evaluation, and Research Methodology"; that is, a degree in the discipline of MERM rather than a degree in some other social or health science discipline with a focus or specialization in MERM. Being awarded a MERM degree, with interdisciplinary foci, makes our students unique in an international setting.

UBC boasts a prestigious reputation as a leading institution in academia and research, which aligns perfectly with my aspirations for a high-quality education.

Xuyan Tang

Quick Facts

Faculty Faculty of Education

Mode of delivery In person at UBC Vancouver

Program Components

Dissertation

Academic Unit Department of Educational & Counselling Psychology, and Special Education

Specialization Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology

Tuition (First Year) Domestic: $5,626.02 | International: $9,883.98

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Program Enquiries

Admission Information & Requirements

1) Check Eligibility

2) Meet Deadlines

3) Prepare Application

4) Apply Online

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Fees	Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat	International
Application Fee	$116.25	$168.25
Tuition *
Installments per year	3	3
Tuition per installment	$1,875.34	$3,294.66
Tuition per year (plus annual increase, usually 2%-5%)	$5,626.02	$9,883.98
Int. Tuition Award (ITA) per year (if eligible)		$3,200.00 (-)
Other Fees and Costs
Student Fees (yearly)	$1,144.10 (approx.)
Costs of living	Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool in order to start developing a financial plan for your graduate studies.

* Regular, full-time tuition. For on-leave, extension, continuing or part time (if applicable) fees see UBC Calendar.
All fees for the year are subject to adjustment and UBC reserves the right to change any fees without notice at any time, including tuition and student fees. Tuition fees are reviewed annually by the UBC Board of Governors. In recent years, tuition increases have been 2% for continuing domestic students and between 2% and 5% for continuing international students. New students may see higher increases in tuition. Admitted students who defer their admission are subject to the potentially higher tuition fees for incoming students effective at the later program start date. In case of a discrepancy between this webpage and the UBC Calendar, the UBC Calendar entry will be held to be correct.

Financial Support

Applicants to UBC have access to a variety of funding options, including merit-based (i.e. based on your academic performance) and need-based (i.e. based on your financial situation) opportunities.

Program Funding Packages

From September 2024 all full-time students in UBC-Vancouver PhD programs will be provided with a funding package of at least $24,000 for each of the first four years of their PhD. The funding package may consist of any combination of internal or external awards, teaching-related work, research assistantships, and graduate academic assistantships. Please note that many graduate programs provide funding packages that are substantially greater than $24,000 per year. Please check with your prospective graduate program for specific details of the funding provided to its PhD students.

Funding Statistics

Based on the criteria outlined below, 5 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $42,276 and a median of $41,912.

This results in a net balance (any funding provided to the student minus tuition and fees) mean of $35,809 and median of $30,890.

4 students received Research Assistantships. Median RA funding based on 4 students was $11,980.
3 students received Academic Assistantships. Median AA funding based on 3 students was $11,021.
5 students received internal awards. Median internal award funding based on 5 students was $6,669.
2 students received external awards. Median external award funding based on 2 students was $20,000.

Study Period: Sep 2023 to Aug 2024 - funding for full-time PhD students enrolled in three terms per academic year in this program across years 1-4, the period covered by UBC's Minimum Funding Guarantee. Mean and median values might mask variability in sources and amounts of funding received by individual students. Beyond year 4, funding packages become even more individualized.
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Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

All applicants are encouraged to review the awards listing to identify potential opportunities to fund their graduate education. The database lists merit-based scholarships and awards and allows for filtering by various criteria, such as domestic vs. international or degree level.

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Many professors are able to provide Research Assistantships (GRA) from their research grants to support full-time graduate students studying under their supervision. The duties constitute part of the student's graduate degree requirements. A Graduate Research Assistantship is considered a form of fellowship for a period of graduate study and is therefore not covered by a collective agreement. Stipends vary widely, and are dependent on the field of study and the type of research grant from which the assistantship is being funded.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate programs may have Teaching Assistantships available for registered full-time graduate students. Full teaching assistantships involve 12 hours work per week in preparation, lecturing, or laboratory instruction although many graduate programs offer partial TA appointments at less than 12 hours per week. Teaching assistantship rates are set by collective bargaining between the University and the Teaching Assistants' Union.

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Academic Assistantships are employment opportunities to perform work that is relevant to the university or to an individual faculty member, but not to support the student’s graduate research and thesis. Wages are considered regular earnings and when paid monthly, include vacation pay.

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Canadian and US applicants may qualify for governmental loans to finance their studies. Please review eligibility and types of loans.

All students may be able to access private sector or bank loans.

Foreign government scholarships

Many foreign governments provide support to their citizens in pursuing education abroad. International applicants should check the various governmental resources in their home country, such as the Department of Education, for available scholarships.

Working while studying

The possibility to pursue work to supplement income may depend on the demands the program has on students. It should be carefully weighed if work leads to prolonged program durations or whether work placements can be meaningfully embedded into a program.

International students enrolled as full-time students with a valid study permit can work on campus for unlimited hours and work off-campus for no more than 24 hours a week during academic sessions.

A good starting point to explore student jobs is the UBC Work Learn program or a Co-Op placement.

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Students with taxable income in Canada may be able to claim federal or provincial tax credits.

Canadian residents with RRSP accounts may be able to use the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) which allows students to withdraw amounts from their registered retirement savings plan (RRSPs) to finance full-time training or education for themselves or their partner.

Please review Filing taxes in Canada on the student services website for more information.

Cost Estimator

Applicants have access to the cost estimator to develop a financial plan that takes into account various income sources and expenses.

Career Outcomes

15 students graduated between 2005 and 2013. Of these, career information was obtained for 13 alumni (based on research conducted between Feb-May 2016):

RI (Research-Intensive) Faculty: typically tenure-track faculty positions (equivalent of the North American Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor positions) in PhD-granting institutions
TI (Teaching-Intensive) Faculty: typically full-time faculty positions in colleges or in institutions not granting PhDs, and teaching faculty at PhD-granting institutions
Term Faculty: faculty in term appointments (e.g. sessional lecturers, visiting assistant professors, etc.)

Sample Employers in Higher Education

University of British Columbia (5)
University of Victoria
Harvard University
University of New Brunswick
University of Calgary

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

Educational Testing Service
Blastworks, Inc.
Department of Education & Early Childhood Development

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

Research Scientist
Co-founder
Senior Business Intelligence Analyst
Program Development Specialist/Psychometrician

PhD Career Outcome Survey

You may view the full report on career outcomes of UBC PhD graduates on outcomes.grad.ubc.ca.

Disclaimer

These data represent historical employment information and do not guarantee future employment prospects for graduates of this program. They are for informational purposes only. Data were collected through either alumni surveys or internet research.

Career Options

MERM graduates are in high demand because of their technical skills and trans-disciplinary perspectives. Our former students are employed as university faculty, data analysts, research scientists, test developers, directors of research in private sector and government, research consultants, assessment and testing specialists in business, industry, and education, certification and credentialing professionals, and psychometricians at research and testing organizations.

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019
Applications	14	17	18	15	14
Offers	1	1	1	1	4
New Registrations	1	1	1	1	4
Total Enrolment	13	13	13	13	13

Research Supervisors

Doctoral Citations

A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.

Year	Citation
2015	Dr. Ark focused on introducing a method for estimating the variance components required for generalizability theory (GT) with ordered categorical ratings. This research provides a proof of concept of this method, called ordinal GT. It offer researchers a new statistical avenue for computing relative G-coefficients when using ordinal variables
2015	Dr. Swenson examined the evaluation process for disability management programs that assist people with impairments to overcome employment barriers. She found that evaluation was based on criteria such as successful job placement and client satisfaction, and drew on multiple perspectives, including the workplace, medical, psychological and social.
2014	Dr. McKeown examined the ways student survey results are used to measure program quality and student learning at UBC. She found that averaging student survey results across program majors could result in misleading information about program quality. Her study has implications for the design of program effectiveness surveys and evaluation research.
2014	Dr. Sandilands studied two statistical methods used to establish whether it is feasible to compare groups in large scale educational assessments. She showed that the methods may not perform accurately when there are missing data, due to assessment design. Her findings will benefit educational policy makers, researchers and assessment designers.
2014	Dr. Grover examined gender bias in a large-scale, school reading and math test. He found that assumptions about which questions might challenge girls and which might be difficult for boys were not always valid. This research revisits the so-called gender gap and provides insights into which boys do poorly in reading and which girls do poorly in math.
2014	Dr. Lyons-Thomas studied ways in which Grade 11 students verbalized their thought processes during an assessment of complex thinking. She found that verbalization is a useful tool for educational assessment. This research suggests that verbalization should be used in test design in order to understand how students may interpret assessment tasks.
2013	Dr. Russell examined whether a new measure of Quality of Life is relevant and appropriate to use with people who are homeless, or vulnerably housed. Her study findings support the use of this measure. However, she also proposed a new approach to evaluating the content validity of measures, and that has application across many disciplines.
2012	Dr. Liu demonstrated how outliers can affect the conclusions we make from our data, countering to a commonly held belief among researchers that outliers, although relevant, have little impact. Her studies demonstrated the impact of two types of outliers: errors in the data and unknown subgroups of respondents or participants.
2012	Statistical analyses often compare groups such as males versus females or Asians versus Latinos. These comparisons ignore heterogeneity within groups (e.g., diversity among women or among examinees from different ethnic backgrounds) leading to largely inaccurate claims. Dr. Oliveri's research addresses the within-group heterogeneity issue in construct comparability analyses to obtain more accurate results when comparing manifest groups.
2010	Dr. Gadermann used interviews and large-scale surveys to identify which contextual factors are most important for children's well-being. The well-being measure that she validated is now widely used in British Columbia to inform practices in schools and communities that support children's well-being.

Doctor of Philosophy in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology (PhD)

Canadian Immigration Updates

Overview

What makes the program unique?

Quick Facts

Program Enquiries

Admission Information & Requirements

1) Check Eligibility

Minimum Academic Requirements

English Language Test

TOEFL: Test of English as a Foreign Language - internet-based

IELTS: International English Language Testing System

Other Test Scores

2) Meet Deadlines

3) Prepare Application

Transcripts

Letters of Reference

Statement of Interest

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology (PhD)

Citizenship Verification

4) Apply Online

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

Financial Support

Program Funding Packages

Funding Statistics

Scholarships & awards (merit-based funding)

Graduate Research Assistantships (GRA)

Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)

Graduate Academic Assistantships (GAA)

Financial aid (need-based funding)

Foreign government scholarships

Working while studying

Tax credits and RRSP withdrawals

Cost Estimator

Career Outcomes

Sample Employers in Higher Education

Sample Employers Outside Higher Education

Sample Job Titles Outside Higher Education

PhD Career Outcome Survey

Disclaimer

Career Options

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

ENROLMENT DATA

Completion Rates & Times

Disclaimer

Research Supervisors

Supervision

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for Doctor of Philosophy in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology (PhD)

Advice and insights from UBC Faculty on reaching out to supervisors

Doctoral Citations

Pages

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Same specialization

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