The Graduate Division serves as the
campus-wide advocate for the advancement of graduate education and strives
for standards of excellence, fairness and equity in all graduate programs.
The fundamental mission of the Graduate Division is to provide central
administrative services which help sustain and improve the quality of
graduate education at UCLA. The Division's organizational structure and
administrative activities can be viewed in terms of two basic interrelated
functions: (1) programmatic activities which help develop and promote
academic quality through strategic planning, policy development and
effective resource allocation; and (2) regulatory activities designed to
ensure campus-wide accountability in maintaining academic quality standards
and other institutional policies and regulations related to graduate
students and postdoctoral scholars.
To fulfill this mission, the Graduate Division:
- Articulates the views, needs, and
priorities of graduate education within the context of general policy
development and budget preparation to ensure that academic goals inform
campus-wide decision making. Facilitates communication between schools,
departments, and administrative offices to ensure that the academic
policies of the Academic Senate and Graduate Council
are implemented through efficient and rational administrative
procedures.
- Protects the general welfare of graduate
students and postdoctoral scholars in all areas of concern, including,
but not limited to, financial support, apprentice personnel conditions,
intellectual property and sexual harassment.
- Promotes the timely completion of graduate
degrees through oversight of degree progress, and encouragement of fair
and equitable treatment of students and faculty advising and mentoring
of students.
- Enhances access, representation and the
educational experience of under-represented students to achieve the
University's diversity objectives. Develops institutional initiatives to
maintain and enhance the pool of qualified applicants and, by
implementing Graduate Council policies, ensures the academic excellence
of entering cohorts.
- Works with the Academic Senate's Graduate
Council to develop policies for graduate education. Provides
information, institutional data and analysis of issues impacting
graduate education to support the Council's planning and policy
functions, and recommends new policies. Implements Graduate Council
policies and provides feedback and analysis on them. Works with the
Academic Senate to attain sharing of responsibility between the faculty
and administration for problem solving, evaluating and analyzing new
program initiatives, assessment and evaluation of continuing programs,
and development.
- Works with the departments, school and
divisional deans, the Office of External Affairs, the Office of
Research Administration, and individual students and faculty
to increase the intramural and extramural funds available for graduate
student support.
- Works with the Graduate Student
Association and the Graduate President's Council to promote and serve
the interests of graduate students and graduate education.
- Conducts and distributes the results of
institutional research on the state of academic programs at UCLA to
enhance program review, enrollment planning and other academic and
strategic planning. Provides a unique focus for the receipt and
dissemination of information regarding graduate education.
- Provides fund management to optimize the
availability of merit-based support for departmental recruitment and
retention of an excellent and diverse graduate student body.
- Promotes public recognition of the
excellence of the University's graduate programs and their contributions
to society through providing information to Congress, governmental
agencies and higher education associations and other UC campuses and
peer institutions. Participates in national studies that identify
emerging social, political, economic and academic trends in graduate
education and postdoctoral training.
Academic and Administrative Functions
A faculty Dean, assisted by three Associated
Deans, heads the Division. The current incumbent also serves as Vice
Chancellor for Graduate Studies. The Dean reports administratively to the
Executive Vice Chancellor and works closely with the Graduate Council as an
ex officio member. The primary responsibilities of the Associate Deans
are to assist the Dean in providing academic leadership for program
development, planning, and decision-making across all functions and
activities of the Division.
The Division exemplifies, in its working
relationship with the Academic Senate's Graduate Council, the principle of
shared governance that is prevalent at the University of California. While
the Graduate Council legislates policy and conducts reviews of academic
programs, the Graduate Division is the administrative unit that implements
and monitors these policies. The Division and the Council work in concert to
ensure that the academic programs maintain standards of excellence, that
policies are fairly and equitably administered, and that the administration
of graduate education serves to facilitate student and faculty goals.
The Graduate Division is composed of four
administrative sections, an Information Technology group, and a central
support unit in the Dean's Suite. The four administrative sections are
Admissions/Student and Academic Affairs; Institutional Research and
Information Services; Outreach, Diversity, and Fellowships; and Student
Support and Postdoctoral & Visiting Scholar Services. To learn more about
the specific functions and activities of each of these administrative units
see about us.
