Graduate Education Initiative
Graduate students and the Graduate School are at the core of everything in Arts & Sciences.
Graduate education is not only imperative for Arts & Sciences, but for the Commonwealth and for society as a whole. Attracting bright graduate students helps the University draw talented faculty. This, in turn, affects the quality of undergraduate education and the University’s ability to address the grand challenges of our time through their research.
In addition, nothing has the ability to lift UVA’s academic reputation overall like enhancing the Graduate School. It may surprise some to know that college and university rankings are driven by the academic quality of PhD programs. This investment can assure that Arts & Sciences elevates the standings of our graduate programs and migrate more departments into Top 10 rankings.
Currently, even after significant investments from Arts & Sciences and the University’s Strategic Investment Fund, our graduate fellowship stipends average about 20% lower than our peers. Unless this gap is addressed long-term, we will be challenged to recruit the best graduate students, and consequently, the best professors.
Arts & Sciences envisions a series of investments focused on endowed fellowships which will transform the Graduate School at UVA, establishing a future-focused model of what graduate education can be at an elite public research university in the 21st century.