If UVA really wants to be a top-notch school, it needs to show grad students the money. At least according to a policy presentation to the Board of Visitors on Friday, June 9, detailing the path of an outstanding research university. The message? Top schools attract top graduate students by paying them top stipends.
Rosanne Ford, associate vice president for research and graduate studies, showed the University’s bigwigs that, by several important measures, UVA lags behind other upper-echelon schools. While 35 of approximately 100 graduate departments at University of California-Berkeley rank in the National Research Council’s Top 10, UVA scored only five out of 50, a measly 10 percent—far lower than fellow state schools UC-San Diego, Michigan and Wisconsin.
So what can UVA do about it?
Raise stipends, says Ford.
Ph.D. students traditionally have their tuition, fees and insurance covered. What differs among schools is their annual stipend for living expenses. While history teaching assistants at Harvard receive approximately $17,000 on average, at UVA they receive less than $8,000. Even in biology, where stipends can exceed $20,000, the University still lags behind several other schools. All told, the average UVA grad student stipend is $14,849—though individual stipends range from less than $1,000 to more than $30,000.
“With inflation of wages and salaries, the amount of money it takes to fund graduate students goes up every day,” says Peter Brunjes, associate dean of graduate programs and research. “We have great students, some of the best in the world. But it’s a struggle to keep up, particularly with the privately funded universities that have more money than we do.”
During her presentation, Ford suggested that UVA follow Stanford’s lead and raise $200 million for graduate fellowships. Stanford has used those endowments to fund 300 graduate fellowships. The Board of Visitors will consider the issue as they prioritize goals for the upcoming capital campaign.
Ultimately, it’s not just about increasing grad students’ beer budgets, Brunjes insists—it’s about attracting the best students, thereby setting higher standards across the board. As he points out, “the best students do the best research, the best teaching and make the best colleagues.”—Will Goldsmith