Message from the Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, GSO (Graduate Studies Office)
GSO’s main mission is to facilitate the omnipresence of an academic environment for graduate studies that can sustain innovations in education and can guarantee that graduate students acquire a robust set of learning outcomes*, thus making NJIT a leader among its peer institutions of higher learning. These innovations create the right environment for high student achievement and help research flourish in academic disciplines of importance to the nation and the world. Fulfilling this mission naturally leads to increased reputation for NJIT’s graduate programs while enhancing graduate student experience.
As a doctoral research university with the R1 Carnegie designation (implying that NJIT maintains a Very High Research Activity environment for its stakeholders), NJIT offers its graduate students tremendous opportunities to pursue their productive dreams. Graduate students are often taught by faculty who are leaders in their field and offer classes that teach students the state of the art in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) disciplines. Also, graduate students have many opportunities to make their own contributions in advanced research topics under the guidance of NJIT’s renowned faculty. In addition to Ph.D. students working on their dissertation research, students enrolled in master’s degree programs as well are presented with numerous opportunities to get involved in high-visibility research.
While pursuing their graduate degree, many students take advantage of NJIT’s prominence as a top-tier public research university in order to acquire experience as interns in leading industries. Searching for talent, hundreds of employers participate every semester in on-campus events organized by NJIT’s Career Development Services (CDS) office.
The yearly numbers of enrolled and graduating Ph.D. students have increased very substantially in recent years primarily because of NJIT’s improved reputation as a technological institution that provides high-quality education while also contributing substantially to efforts that push the frontiers of new knowledge in STEM disciplines and beyond.
Student-centered innovation in graduate education and research requires a fertile academic environment prone to hastily acquiring and conveying new knowledge. It facilitates the birth of novel graduate programs and expedites essential curriculum updates in efforts to keep up with rapid advances in the frontiers of new knowledge. Maintaining such a prolific environment for graduate student success is at the core of GSO’s mission.
Forming a sizable 30% of NJIT’s student population, graduate students pursue degrees in a wide variety of academic disciplines. They receive face-to-face and online instruction in STEM fields as well as in business and management, and architecture and design graduate programs that are commonly enriched with essential aspects of technology. NJIT, New Jersey’s Science and Technology University, is also an ethnically and culturally diverse institution that is a leader in the enrollment of underrepresented students. Obtaining a solid education in NJIT’s diverse and highly competitive ecosystem, our graduates eventually become NJIT’s distinguished ambassadors to the world. We are proud of them!
Sotirios G. Ziavras, D.Sc.
Vice Provost for Graduate Studies and Dean of the Graduate Faculty
*Learning Outcomes: Knowledge and skills acquired by students in their degree program.