Office Staff

The Office of Graduate and Professional Education works with academic departments and programs campus wide to:

• Encourage a rich learning environment that attracts and retains excellent graduate students to work closely with outstanding faculty.
• Ensure consistent standards and procedures across the University with respect to the organization, administration, requirements, and operating rules of graduate and professional education.
• Facilitate and support interdisciplinary endeavors.
• Increase the representation and the ongoing support of underrepresented students.
• Expose students to a broad range of cultural and disciplinary ideas.
• Support students who are having difficulty in their academic and co-curricular activities

Facts & Figures

Student Population

UD currently has a graduate population of nearly 3,500 students – one-third doctoral students and two-thirds master's degree students.

Programs

UD offers 43 doctoral and 115 master's degree programs.

Degrees Awarded

In 2008, UD awarded 212 doctoral degrees and 754 master's degrees.

International

International students, representing 105 countries, comprise nearly 25% of UD's graduate population. Top countries include China, India, and Korea.

Graduate students at UD are provided with the principles and techniques for independent thinking and research that will serve them and others well in the world.

Historical

The first doctoral programs at UD, in chemical engineering and chemistry, were approved in December 1946.

The first doctorate was awarded at UD in 1948 to James Westwater in chemical engineering.

Degrees

The most recently established graduate degree programs include the M.S. in Finance, M.S. in Fashion Studies, M.Ed. in School Leadership, M.Ed. in Higher Educational Administration, and M.S. in Evaluation. In the near future, the new Ph.D. program in Disaster Science and Management will be available.

UD has several programs that result in dual degrees such as the Ph.D./M.B.A. in Biological Sciences, the Master's in Engineering/M.B.A., the M.B.A./M.S. in Finance, and the M.B.A./M.S. in Accounting.

UD also offers graduate programs that combine the bachelor's degree with a master's degree for the advanced bachelor's student (called "4+1 programs") such as the B.A. in English combined with the M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language.

Certificate Programs

Designed for the working professional, UD's Graduate Certificate Programs are Internet-based and lead to professional certification in such areas as Composite Materials, Nursing, Dietetic Nutrition, and Socially Responsible and Sustainable Apparel Business.

Excellence

UD is classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a research university with very high research activity - a designation accorded to less than 3 percent of U.S. colleges and universities.

Centers

The University maintains more than 50 research centers and institutes focusing on subjects of special interest and purpose for the public good.

Strategic Planning

Graduate programs are targeted for growth and development in the University’s “Path to Prominence,” the strategic plan unveiled by President Patrick Harker in May 2008, which seeks to build UD’s strengths across the academic, research, and community service spectrum.

In addition to expanding the excellence and reach of UD’s signature graduate programs in areas ranging from art conservation and public horticulture to chemical engineering, marine science, criminology, and public policy, increased emphasis is being placed on the development of professional education opportunities in health, education, engineering, business, and law where the bachelor’s degree is no longer adequate.

The Office of Graduate and Professional Education at the University of Delaware employs best practices and coherent policies to promote excellence in graduate and professional education and student success.

Our strategic goals are:

• Advance and Sustain Highest Quality Programs
• Strengthen Diversity
• Support Globalization and Enrichment of the Graduate Student Experience
• Improve Advocacy
• Expand Professional Education

These goals are designed to enhance significantly the identity, visibility, and quality of graduate and professional education at the University of Delaware. These initiatives foster a rich learning environment that will attract and retain excellent students to work closely with outstanding faculty. The entire plan, including our action agenda, is available for review.

Excellence

The University of Delaware is committed to achieving the highest levels of excellence in graduate education. Many of UD’s graduate programs are ranked among the very best in their fields, providing students with the knowledge and skills to pursue rewarding careers.

At the University of Delaware there are 43 doctoral programs and 115 magisterial degree programs across its seven colleges and more than 50 research centers and institutes. In 2007-08, these degree programs produced 208 doctoral and 695 master’s graduates.

Our research centers expand the depth and breadth of UD graduate education, as do busy, University-based clinics. Graduate students in sociology and criminal justice have the benefit of working with two internationally renown research centers at UD, including the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and the Disaster Research Center, while students in the Biomechanics and Movement Science (BIOMS) program gain hands-on experience assisting patients in UD’s Physical Therapy Clinic, and graduate students in psychology help community residents in the Psychology Services Training Center.

The University of Delaware cooperates with other research institutions and laboratories, industries, public gardens, museums, and other arts organizations on local to global levels, providing students with access to an even broader range of world-class facilities and experiences. Emerging health science partnerships involving the University of Delaware, Christiana Care Health System, Thomas Jefferson University, and Nemours/A. I. DuPont Hospital for Childrenare providing a wealth of new opportunities for collaborative research on translational cancer, biomechanics and rehabilitation, and other important topics. The University of Delaware Professional Training Program/Resident Ensemble Players is a powerful and unique marriage of a resident professional acting company and a conservatory training program. Our work in material culture studies engages graduate students in the interpretation, examination, and preservation of world-class collections where collaborative connections are sustained.

Ranked Programs

UD currently offers 43 doctoral and 115 master's degree programs across its seven colleges and more than 50 research centers and institutes. Many of these programs are regarded among the very best in the nation, such as UD's Plant and Soil Science program, whose students have received more dissertation awards from the Soil Science Society of America in the past 10 years than any other institution in the United States.

Or the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation, which is one of only five programs in the United States to offer the master's degree, a leader in educating stewards of the world's art and cultural treasures, from the United States to Iraq and China.

The graduate program in chemical engineering, the oldest graduate program at UD along with chemistry, is ranked among the top 10 in the United States by U.S. News and World Report, and is one of the top producers of Ph.Ds in the United States, with dozens of successful UD graduates now working in academia as professors and in industry as research leaders.

The U.S. News and World Report also recognizes two of our Schools as having top graduate programs.  The School of Education is ranked #35.  They provide a wide range of professional programs for educational leaders in the region, as well as a strong doctoral program, with graduates placed in faculty positions across the country (e.g.University of Georgia, University of Chicago at Illinois, University of Virginia).  The School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy is ranked #41, and its specializations in City Management and Nonprofit Management are ranked 10 and 16 respectively.   Graduates are leaders in the public and nonprofit sectors, addressing a wide range of planning and policy issues.

Another UD graduate program that is ranked by U.S. News and World Report among the top ten programs nationally in its field is the Theatre Department’s Professional Theatre Training Program, a 3-year M.F.A. conservatory training program in acting,  stage management, and technical production.  Its graduates are employed at leading theatres throughout the United States, including The Acting Company, The Guthrie Theatre, Baltimore Center State, Walnut Street Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre as well as in featured roles on Broadway and in film and television

Research centers expand the depth and breadth of UD graduate education, as do busy, University-based clinics. Graduate students in sociology and criminal justice, for example, have the benefit of working with two internationally renown research centers at UD, including the Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies and the Disaster Research Center, while students in the Biomechanics and Movement Science (BIOMS) program gain hands-on experience assisting patients in UD's Physical Therapy Clinic, and graduate students in psychology help community residents in the Psychology Services Training Center.

Additionally, emerging health science partnerships involving the University of Delaware, Christiana Care Health System, Thomas Jefferson University, and Nemours/A. I. DuPont Hospital for Children are providing a wealth of new opportunities for collaborative research on translational cancer, biomechanics and rehabilitation, and other important topics.

Across the University of Delaware campus, you'll find graduate students conducting research on subjects ranging from breast cancer to solar energy, designing landscapes using native plants through a program with world-renowned Longwood Gardens, teaching an introductory course on the oceans to undergraduate students, exploring the history of technology in a cooperative program with Hagley Museum, assisting children and adults with disabilities through a variety of services, and much more.

Around the world you'll find them, too, traveling by moped through the jungles of Sumatra to document and save endangered languages, plunging to the floor of the Pacific Ocean in a submersible to study how life can thrive in a deep, dark world, documenting 18th-century churches in Brazil, and learning international business skills in a joint program with the Grenoble Graduate School of Business at the foot of the French Alps.

A new competitive global research travel award program recently has been established to provide graduate students campus wide with grants up to $5,000 to support field-based research, internships, and other scholarly and creative opportunities. Fundraising to ensure longer-term support of this extramural initiative that will enrich the graduate experience.

As UD's graduate students go about their work, they contribute significantly to the creation of knowledge and to the University's research, education, and public service missions.

"Our graduate students are deeply committed, engaged, and highly skilled, and we look forward to welcoming many more of these energetic scholars to our UD family in the future," Norris notes. "We remain firmly committed to creating an educational community that is intellectually, culturally and socially diverse, and enriched by the contributions and full participation of persons from many different backgrounds."

Why UD?

Graduate students at the University of Delaware make significant contributions to the University’s objectives of creating, synthesizing, and disseminating knowledge. Through formal courses, seminars, independent studies, and research projects, students are introduced to existing and are provided with the principles and techniques for independent thinking and research that will serve them well in the world.

Graduate students at the University of Delaware engage with the critical issues of our day through discovery and experiential learning. Our students have the opportunity to study with highly acclaimed scholars working at the frontiers of their fields. Our students also have access to 50 advanced research facilities and institutes, including a library that is one of the largest in North America and cultural institutions housing world-class collections.

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Awards

Dissertation Winners

The doctorate signifies the highest level of academic accomplishment in a given field. The Dissertation Prize of $1000 is awarded annually by the Office of Graduate and Professional Education for the outstanding dissertation. Recent award winners include:

• The Wilbur Owen Sypherd Prize in the Humanities (Art History, English, History and Linguistics)
• The George Herbert Ryden Prize in the Social Sciences (Education, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Political Science, Urban Affairs and Public Policy, Human Development and Family Studies, Energy and Environmental Policy)
• The Allan P. Colburn Prize in the Mathematical Sciences and Engineering (Mathematical Sciences, Scomputer Science, Operations Research and all Engineering programs)
• The Theodore Wolf Prize in the Physical and Life Sciences (Chemistry, Physics, Biological Sciences, Geology, Marine Studies, Climatology and Agricultural Sciences)
• The Dan Rich Prize will be awarded to a student that has through their doctoral work developed an idea and through it created the potential to make a valuable difference in the lives of Delawareans.

Complete details of the Dissertation Prize, including nomination instructions.

Advising/Mentoring Winners

The Office of Graduate and Professional Education invites nominations from the University Community to honor faculty members whose dedication to graduate students and commitment to excellence in graduate training have made a significant contribution to the quality of life and professional development of graduate students at the University of Delaware. All currently enrolled UD graduate students, graduate student groups, and graduate alumni may nominate candidates for the award.

The sole criterion for these awards is outstanding advising and mentoring. Please click for complete details on the prize and nomination instructions.

Please see our past prize winners - Advisers/Mentors of Doctoral Students, Advisers/Mentors of Master's Students

For More Information

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