It is the quality, breadth, and depth of interaction in this unit that largely determines the outcome of the graduate experience. High quality graduate education depends upon the professional and ethical conduct of the participants. Faculty and graduate students have complementary responsibilities in the maintenance of academic standards and the creation of high quality graduate programs. Excellence in graduate education is achieved when both faculty and students are highly motivated, possess the academic and professional backgrounds necessary to perform at the highest level, and are sincere in their desire to see each other succeed. Careful, well-conceived research reflects favorably on the student, the faculty adviser, and the University.
Graduate education is structured around the transmission of knowledge at the highest level.
In some academic units, the student's specific adviser may change during the course of the student's program. The role of advising may also change and become a mentoring relationship. The reward of finding a faculty mentor implies that the student has achieved a level of excellence and sophistication in the field, or exhibits sufficient promise to merit the more intensive interest, instruction, and counsel of faculty. In academic units, faculty advisers support the academic promise of graduate students in their program. In some cases, academic advisers are assigned to entering graduate students to assist them in academic advising and other matters.