The Graduate School of Design (GSD) is beginning discussions which will probably lead to a major expansion of the school's programs to broaden its academic scope and help alleviate its recent financial problems, officials said this week.

Specialized advanced degree and post-professional programs are needed to expand the curriculum and bring in new sources of funding for the school, which has lost money the last three years, administrators said.

"We're doing what we do now very well, but we're losing money," said Kate Rooney, GSD assistant dean for administration.

But some students say the school has a lack of direction in its existing programs and should concentrate on reorganizing them before expanding.

"There are a lot of problems with the school as it currently exists. There are a lot of programs that aren't well defined or well run," said second year landscape architect Patrice Todisco.

Administrators and faculty blame most of the schools current financial problems on the loss of the City and Regional Planning Program which was transferred to the Kennedy School of Government in 1980, taking with it a large chunk of students and revenue. The GSD has run at a deficit every year since.

GSD Dean Gerald M. McCue said the current discussions have their roots in that loss but that the school has moved slowly to reassess its objectives. "I think the time has come for a logical policy for the growth of the school," he said.

McCue will discuss the school's direction with the faculty tomorrow and in a series of meetings throughout the spring.

"We need to come to a consensus about what our primary objective ought to he," said McCue.

The Design school is generally considered one of the top schools in the country--a recent poll of architects and educators rated it first--but some say that it has slipped in recent years.

"There's no question that Harvard used to be the premiere school in architecture and landscape architecture in the world, but that terminated 15 years ago," said Ian L. McHarg, chairman of the landscape architecture and regional planning-department at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design.

He said the school needed to expand its advanced education in response to changing conditions in professional architecture and design, but a major focus of this spring's discussions would be whether they can attract sufficient students and funding to make it feasible.

By soliciting money from professional firms and private foundations for new programs, the schools will be able to tackle both problems at once, said Rooney.

Professor of Landscape Architecture Carl J. Steinitz said discussions within the faculty' have recognized the need to "broaden the school's mandate."

"It's a sharper recognition of the changing profession and not just the student audiences, and I think it's positive," he added.