Graduate School
of Arts and Sciences

With the appointment of Professor Gregory L. Freeze as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in 2006, the University has launched a range of initiatives to upgrade the quality of its graduate programs.

Increase Graduate Student Fellowships

One aim is to provide greater funding for in doctoral programs. First, to be competitive, the Graduate School must increase the monthly stipends and provide summer fellowships (as other universities have already done); only then can students concentrate on their work and avoid the distraction of supplementary, part-time employment. Second, Brandeis already plans to emulate the practice of other top-tier universities and provide support for five, not four, years; that initiative, which takes effect in 2009-10, is essential to ensuring that students focus on their dissertations and graduate in a timely fashion.

 Development

We can meet financial goals if we make our alumni and friends aware of the importance of graduate education—to scholarship, to faculty, to undergraduates, to Brandeis’ service mission. Alumni and friends have already begun to extend their generosity to the Graduate School, and such support is critically important if Brandies is to remain a first-class research university.

 Marketing and Recruitment

The Graduate School has designed a multifaceted strategy to recruit top-quality applicants. Admissions this fall showed a 11 percent increase in doctoral applications and a 16 percent increase in master’s applications, indeed, at a time when some peer institutions had little or no growth; the Graduate School expects to continue raising the quality and quantity of its applicant pool. This year, we have appointed a new assistant dean of admissions (David Cotter); created a new, user-friendly website (the chief marketing tool); participated in graduate school fairs (16 fairs in 14 cities nationwide); and sent emails to prospective students and faculty.

 Interdisciplinarity

Graduate study, by definition, tends to be highly specialized, with the goal of training future scholars in a particular discipline. However, in recent years the leading research universities have become increasingly sensitive to the need to promote interdisciplinary studies. After all, most problems raise issues that transcend a particular discipline, and we can best examine them by using a variety of disciplinary methods. The Graduate School strongly encourages students to explore other disciplines and supports faculty initiatives to offer graduate interdisciplinary courses. Interdisciplinarity has become a hallmark of education at Brandeis, at both the undergraduate and undergraduate level, ranging from the Life Sciences to programs like Women’s and Gender Studies and Cultural Production. At the graduate level, the discipline is still the foundation of learning; the task is to stretch, to transcend boundaries and to learn from the theories, methods, and research strategies of allied disciplines.

Teacher Training

Central to Brandeis’ identity is its commitment to deepening the critical connections between teaching and research. These connections lead to pioneering research and excellence in the classroom. The Graduate School seeks to instill that ethos in its graduate students and even requires that all doctoral students serve as teaching fellows. Our goal is to provide hands-on teacher training under the instructor’s close mentorship. Then the doctoral candidate develops essential teaching skills and creates a portfolio that provides a significant advantage in the academic job market. In addition, the Graduate School and other branches of the University offer a wide range of seminars and workshops on teacher training.

 Graduate Student Services

In the past year, the University has significantly increased its support for essential graduate student services. It established a new position, assistant to the provost for graduate student affairs, an office that will help our students—domestic and international—negotiate the complexities of living and working in a graduate environment. The Graduate School also offers career services which includes individual counseling and a series of employment-oriented workshops (on interviewing, preparing resumes, and networking).