Welcome to the Graduate School. Make Yourself at Home.

Since 1905, we’ve provided graduate students with access to the information, resources, and support they need for a successful and rewarding graduate education experience. We’ll work with you along every step of your journey to guide you through the admissions process, help you find grant and fellowship opportunities, develop your professional skills, and connect you with other students.

Fostering a diverse and vibrant community of students and scholars is essential to our work and allows us to achieve our goal to equip you to lead, collaborate, develop new ideas, and address complex challenges in a way that advances academia, industry, our culture, and the global society.

We are committed to providing you with a strong graduate community that embraces diversity and inclusivity, drives innovation, and helps you achieve intellectual excellence.

Land Acknowledgment

The University of Minnesota - Twin Cities is built within the traditional homelands of the Dakota people. It is important to acknowledge the peoples on whose land we live, learn and work as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with our tribal nations. We also acknowledge that words are not enough. We must ensure that our institution provides support, resources, and programs that increase access to all aspects of higher education for our American Indian students, staff, faculty, and community members.

Graduate School Faculty & Staff

We believe in the transformative power that education has on our students and our society. From the application process to your graduation commencement, we’ll do everything we can to provide you with an unforgettable graduate education experience. If you have questions about your application, funding opportunities, diversity and inclusion, or a specific program please don’t hesitate to ask.

Graduate School Campuses

We offer masters and doctoral degrees for more than 130 research-based graduate programs between the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses to give students an opportunity to find the right program and the right environment for their graduate education.

Scott Lanyon Headshot
Dr. Scott Lanyon earned his Ph.D. from Louisiana State University and was appointed vice provost and dean of graduate education at the University of Minnesota in 2016.

Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Education

Dr. Scott Lanyon

Dr. Lanyon’s research is in the field of avian systematics, where he and his colleagues used DNA sequence data to develop an understanding of the evolutionary relationships between families, genera, and species of birds. Their research has shed light on the evolutionary processes responsible for behavioral and morphological patterns observed in birds today. In appreciation of his contributions to ornithology both as scholar and leader, Lanyon served as president of the American Ornithologists' Union (2014-2016). He also served as curator of birds at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History for ten years before becoming a faculty member in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior in 1995.

Lanyon has demonstrated a commitment to graduate and postdoctoral training throughout his career - as an advisor to graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who have gone on to be very successful in a variety of career paths, as an administrator advocating for increased support (financial, health, and professional development) for graduate students, and as an educator training students to write competitive grant and fellowship proposals.

In 2013, in recognition of his passion for graduate education, Lanyon was named chair of the Special Committee on Graduate Education by Provost Karen Hanson and the chair of the Faculty Consultative Committee.

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Our Promise

The Graduate School strives to operate with complete integrity as a neutral and impartial entity that promises to uphold standards of excellence. Our dedicated staff works to develop a diverse population of students and to ensure these students are uniquely positioned to collaborate, communicate, ask questions, solve complex societal problems, and lead the development of future knowledge as they enter careers inside or outside academia.

Strategic Plan

Like you, the Graduate School is determined to learn and grow. We feed off the energy and passion of our students, faculty, and staff in order to create a vibrant and sustainable community across both campuses and within each graduate program.

We will continue to provide welcoming, inclusive campus environments for all students, empower our faculty and staff members to advise and support graduate students at every stage of their journey, and grow the Graduate School’s recognition and reputation as a respected research institution.

Education Policies

We conduct comprehensive reviews and oversight of each graduate policy to ensure that our students have access to the best possible education, equipment, and facilities.

Our policies are updated regularly to provide transparency regarding our processes for reviewing, moderating, and updating our programs.