Funding for graduate programs will significantly increase over the next five years, giving Ph.D. and Master of Fine Arts students more funds for fellowships, scholarships, research and international study, university officials announced Wednesday.
NU will increase graduate school programs’ financial resources by 50 percent and will increase its enrollment of 2,500 students by between 50 and 75 students by 2013.
The Graduate School has attempted to raise the visibility and quality of its programs over the past four years, said Graduate School Senior Associate Dean Simon Greenwold.
“Now we are pleased that the university is making the investment in us to take steps in this direction,” Greenwold said. “It’s a university-wide priority that doctoral education improves across the board. Our hope is that this will bring us to the next tier.”
NU will use the resources to improve opportunities for Ph.D. students across all disciplines. With the funds, nearly every Ph.D. student will be guaranteed funding for five years of study.
Ph.D. students spend a minimum of five years and a maximum of eight years at NU.
The funding increases stemmed from Northwestern’s reputation as an outstanding institution for both its undergraduate and professional schools, said Vice President of University Relations Al Cubbage.
“The university in the past decade has put an increasing emphasis and an increased amount of resources into the Ph.D. programs,” Cubbage said. “This is the next step, that Northwestern is committing significant financial resources to continue the improvement of the Ph.D. programs here at the university.”
It was a priority for The Graduate School to make the funds available for current students as well as for new students by upgrading the aid packages of students currently in the system, Greenwold said.
“The current students here deserve to be taken care of and a higher quality of life and to be given the opportunity to succeed just like new students,” Greenwold said, adding that peer institutions have contacted The Graduate School to inquire about how they accomplished the changes to their financial resources.
He declined to comment on financial aspects of the program.
Graduate Student Association President Megan Greenfield said there are students who do not receive funds under the plan, which only applies to Weinberg graduate students in the social sciences and humanities.
“In general, everyone’s excited,” the fourth-year graduate student said. “But it would be great if everybody was included.”
Graduate students in the School of Communication, the School of Education and Social Policy and the School of Music are excluded from the plan because they are not under the umbrella of The Graduate School.
