School of Interdisciplinary & Graduate Studies

Founded in:

  • 1915, as the Graduate School.
  • Advanced degrees were awarded as early as 1908. Other advanced courses were offered by the Schools of Medicine and Law as early as 1856.   In 2008, the Graduate School officially became the School of Interdisciplinary and Graduate Studies (SIGS) and the only students who enroll in the unit are those pursuing an interdisciplinary degree.  We advocate for and serve all graduate students enrolled in the other units, however, and the Graduate Council establishes minimum guidelines for graduate education across the university and SIGS oversees policies for administering graduate education for 41 doctoral programs, over 75 master’s programs, and 24 certificate programs.

Enrollment:

  • 31 students are currently enrolled in SIGS in interdisciplinary programs; however, we serve all graduate students enrolled elsewhere, and they number between three and four thousand (counting masters, doctoral, and graduate non-degree students).

Noteworthy programs based on national recognition, uniqueness or other criteria. (Limit three):

Academic Programs:

  • Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program: doctoral tracks in Biostatistics and Translational Neurosciences (pending), and master’s track in Bioethics and Medical Humanities.  Several students are also enrolled in ad hoc doctoral and master’s programs.

Student Advocacy Programs:

  • The PLAN for Graduate Student Professional Development (launched in 2010-11):  PLAN is an acronym for Professional development (research and teaching skills; career skills), Life skill development (handling stress, developing professional relationships, healthy lifestyle), Academic development (completing coursework, academic program requirements, thesis and dissertation advice), and Networking skills development.  We offer workshops that bring students from multiple disciplines together.  An article about this program is appearing in a 2012 issue of Pedagogy, guest-edited by Leonard Cassuto, who is planning on coming to UofL in Fall 2012 to write a story for his column in The Chronicle of Higher Education about this professional development program.
  • Graduate Teaching Academy:  co-sponsored by SIGS and the Delphi Center for Teaching and Learning; trains approximately 25-30 graduate students in best teaching practices each year.  (First graduates in 2009).

Community Service:

  • To University Community:  we host the doctoral hooding and graduation ceremony (held May and December since 2008).
  • We also host Visitation Day annually;  brings in academically qualified juniors and seniors, with an emphasis on the recruitment of ethnic minority and unrepresented populations.

Student honors (external awards, scholarships, fellowships, etc.):

  • In 2010-11, we awarded 109 University fellowships; 27 doctoral dissertation completion awards; 42 Diversity fellowships and scholarships; 65 tuition awards—matching program grants; 4 training grant incentive awards.
  • We have four student awards given at every hooding ceremony, dean’s citations for students in the top ten percent of their graduating class, and 2 faculty mentoring awards at the spring ceremony.
  • Shyam Sharma, doctoral student in English and the graduate assistant to the dean of SIGS from 2009-2011, was a 2012 recipient of American Association of Colleges and Universities’ K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Award.

Other facts about SIGS:

SIGS promotes graduate education across the entire university and provides opportunities for exceptional graduate students to pursue advanced degrees through special scholarship and award programs.  We partner with other graduate schools in the state of Kentucky to further awareness of the importance of graduate education in the Commonwealth. We participate in conferences at the national level to promote and share our graduate training programs and to stay abreast of best practices in graduate education.