Our graduate programs, including many professional master s degree programs, include courses on research methods and require research projects. By conducting research projects, students learn to find information in the literature, to formulate and solve a problem, and to communicate the results clearly both orally and in writing. By interpreting texts in original ways, by analyzing social processes with innovative conceptual frameworks, and by designing novel scientific experiments, students become more insightful and more creative. By studying and contributing to the scholarly literature, students realize that knowledge changes and grows, and that to be successful professionals in the future, they will need to be life-long learners. In short, a research-based graduate education helps students develop skills that are useful in any career.
Few universities graduate more students with advanced degrees each year than Illinois.
Consequently, we have a responsibility to offer graduate programs of the highest quality. By preserving the research emphasis in our graduate programs, and by enhancing the professional preparation of our students, we will better educate our students for positions of leadership in society. The Graduate College works with faculty, students, staff, and administrators to promote the quality of graduate education, through excellent services to students and to departments. We articulate the purpose and value of graduate education, and the educational benefits of diversity among graduate students. We encourage the development of innovative and interdisciplinary academic programs a particularly crucial need under budget reform, when resources go to disciplinary colleges.