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."
