A Message from the Vice Provost


Photo of Patricia Gumport Great graduate programs are the hallmark of a great university, and Stanford is one of the world’s great research universities. Today, more than half of Stanford’s students are graduate students. In fact, each of Stanford’s seven Schools prepares graduate students—in master’s, professional, doctoral, and post-doctoral programs. Our students contribute immeasurably to Stanford’s long-standing reputation for academic excellence and intellectual innovation.

The mission of the University is to advance knowledge and understanding within and across disciplines. We do this exceptionally well—in the humanities, sciences, engineering, arts, and professions. We do so in part by developing graduate students into colleagues who become leaders in educational institutions, business, industry, government, and nonprofit organizations.

The opportunity to work with the finest young minds in the country and the world—the graduate students and post-docs who come to Stanford University—is a rare privilege accorded to our faculty and staff. Stanford students break intellectual ground, as they develop new understandings and make important discoveries. They bring a vital curiosity and enthusiasm for exchanging ideas with colleagues. Graduate students often push faculty to try new things, or apply well-understood ideas in novel ways. By asking “Why is it done this way?,” students can launch new thinking and ways of doing things.

Stanford is distinctive in that schools, departments, and faculty have a high great degree of autonomy to shape their graduate program requirements and allocate resources. As a result, the variation within the university is great. But, even though graduate education here is highly decentralized, we also embrace university-wide standards and values.

Indeed, the benefits of working with students come with commensurate responsibilities. Stanford’s faculty and staff have a sacred trust to do well by our students. All members of the university community have a collective responsibility for ensuring that every single student has access to the best Stanford has to offer. It is important not just to maintain the status quo—although it has served us well—but to continually raise the bar, challenging one other to strive for greatness.

The stakes are high. Today’s students will be tomorrow’s leaders in the United States and around the world.

It is an honor and a privilege to serve as Stanford’s first Vice Provost for Graduate Education. I am extremely fortunate to work in a university that upholds the highest standards and encourages risk-taking. The mission of our office is to help shape an educational environment that both supports what we most cherish in existing academic practices and facilitates new activities to provide even better educational experiences for our students.

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