The Study of Trend Thesis / Dissertations Topic in Geography and Rural Planning Discipline (from 2000- 2009) Case Study: Thesis / Dissertations in University of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti University and Tarbiat Modarres University

Majority of researches in rural fields are carried out by post graduate students in geography and rural planning discipline. As these students are expected both to achieve goals of rural development in one hand and the mission of higher education in the country on the other، they should consider the application of their research results and achievements. One way to achieve this goal is organizing and directing topics of thesis / dissertations of MA and Ph. D. students of geography and rural planning in a way to meet the needs of the rural community. This requires knowledge and study of topic trends of this thesis / dissertations that is the purpose of this study. This study is a descriptive – analytic research and the by which it has been conducted is «content analysis». The Statistic population of the research is 206 Thesis / Dissertations of Students of Geography and Rural Planning in three Universities including Shahid Beheshti University، Tarbiat Modarres University and Tehran of Tehran. With teachers and experts in this field، basis of the thesis topic، indicators of sustainable development was considered as economic، social-cultural، political and institutional-managerial، physical-spatial، and environmental. Hence، these topics are in five general categories and 22 subjects subgroups. The thesis / dissertations inclusion in topics is not possible in any of the 21 subgroups as miscellaneous group. Some of thesis / dissertations because of the nature of the topic could be assigned in more than one group. Using the control checklist، information contained in the opening pages of thesis / dissertations (15 index) (Include: subject، spatial domain، the domain of the subject، the relationship with other academic disciplines، universities، the Supervisor، the Advisor، the number of pages، student gender، methodology، tools used in the study، scores of thesis / dissertation) have been collected. This information has been coded into SPSS 16 software and have been analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The highest number (31 cases) of dissertations has been defended in the 1386 year and the lowest number (13 cases) has been in the 1381. The maximum number of pages of the thesis/ dissertations is related to the year 1386 and the lowest number of pages was for year 1381. Most students defended in Tehran University in July، August and February have paid charges. This situation is also observed in Shahid Beheshti University، with the difference that in addition to these three months، mostly students، in December have pain for this. Tarbiat Modarres University students are also in such a situation in months of April، July، September and March as the date of the defense of the thesis / dissertation. The results indicate that among the five subjects، there are significant differences in tendency to physical- spatial and institutional - managerial topics between the universities. The research findings indicate that the agricultural and natural resources and social and economic sciences have the most effect on the thesis / dissertations in the discipline of geography and rural planning.