Mission Statement
- Provide support, improve communication, and start new initiatives for graduate students, departments, and interdisciplinary programs.
- Provide a positive graduate student experience and increase retention of graduate students through various programs and activities.
- Utilize a variety of recruitment programs to attract high quality and diverse graduate students.
The Office of Graduate Education provides support for:
Rackham Graduate Programs
While the traditional graduate programs have shared responsibility between the departments and Rackham, the Office of Research and Graduate Education serves as a student support and coordination mechanism. In this office, we coordinate Fellowship Allocation, the Graduate Student Advisory Committee, and special student issues. The following departments are Rackham graduate programs:
- Aerospace Engineering
- Applied Physics
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering
- Design Science
- Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
- Financial Engineering
- Industrial and Operations Engineering
- Macromolecular Science and Engineering
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
- Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
- Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences
Professional and Interdisciplinary Programs
The Office of Research and Graduate Education also oversees five major interdisciplinary programs. These programs include Applied Physics, Center for Professional Development (CPD), Integrated Systems + Design (ISD), Macromolecular Science and Engineering, and the Tauber Institute for Global Operations (TIGO).
- Applied Physics is a graduate program that is jointly sponsored by the College of Engineering and the Department of Physics in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. It prepares PhD students for the quickening pace of development at the frontier between physics and engineering.
- ISD coordinates the College of Engineering’s interdisciplinary professional programs. These programs offer students opportunities to build expertise in a broad range of emerging and expanding industries. In addition to an array of professional short courses, ISD offers Master of Engineering degrees in the following areas: Automotive Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering, Global Automotive and Manufacturing Engineering, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering + Design. All five of these degrees can be completed on campus or online. ISD is ranked in the top ten for Best Online Graduate Engineering Programs by the U.S. News and World Report. ISD is also home to the Design Science program, which is administered by the Rackham Graduate School.
- Joel D. Tauber Institute for Global Operations is a joint venture between industry and the University of Michigan’s highly ranked College of Engineering and Ross School of Business. The Tauber Institute helps prepare students for leadership positions in the areas of operations, supply chain, and/or manufacturing. The program includes a 14-week summer team project at a leading international company.
- Robotics offers MS and PhD engineering degrees that will integrate knowledge from across a range of technical fields for applications to robotics. The program focuses on three core disciplines essential to robotics: sensing of the environment, external agents, and internal body information to determine state information; reasoning with that information to make decisions for guidance, control, and localization; and acting upon the body and environment to produce motion or other outputs that enable the robot to locomote or interact with the environment. With the participation of faculty from a broad range of engineering disciplines, students have the opportunity to tailor their study to their interests
Graduate Student Recruiting and Retention
The University of Michigan’s graduate programs in engineering are consistently rated among the top in the nation, and its researchers are internationally recognized. Each year, the College of Engineering awards more than 1,000 Master’s and Doctoral degrees from among 14 major departments and programs. We are dedicated to meeting the diverse needs of our students, and we are proud to provide excellent facilities, as well as outstanding staff, faculty, and graduate students who are eager to welcome and work with you while you are here. Please take a look at our Graduate Recruiting and Admissions website to see a comprehensive listing of our on and off-campus recruitment programs.
Once you become a graduate student, we are very dedicated to making your experience at Michigan productive and memorable. Professional development workshops and social activities are offered throughout the year. The Graduate Student Advisory Committee (GSAC) meets bi-monthly to communicate the needs of students, to advocate for changes, and to plan meaningful programs. For more information about graduate student initiatives and resources, go to the Graduate Programs website.