Abstract

M.Sc. graguates acquire different levels of research experience and self efficacy during their course period. The purpose of this cause- correlational study was to investigate the current status and rela - tionship of M.Sc. graduates research experiences and research self-efficacy. The statistical population consiste all 326 M.Sc graduate of 2011-2012 from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Zanjan from that 202 graduates were randomly selected based on Krejcie and Morgan sampling table and applying stratified sampling method.The research tool was a researcher-made questionnaire which its validity was verified by a panel of agricultural higher education experts. The reliability of questionnaire was obtained by calculating alpha cronbach greater than of 0.77 for composite indexes by applying principal components analysis for categorical data (CATPCA). The finding revealed that majority of respondents (67.8%) assessed their research self efficacy at high level. Research self-efficacy of graduates has signif- icantly increased after dissertation submission and passing all courses. Findings indicated that almost half of the graduates investigated (52.5), rated their research experience at average level. However there was a positive significant relationship between students research experience and their reseach self ef- ficacy. Ordinal regression analysis showed that three variables named as research skill, clarified goals - standards and faculty infrastructure explained 17.7 percent of research self efficacy.