Provost Paula Short announced on Monday that the University will be reorganizing its graduate programs, moving the 43 doctoral and 98 master-level programs from their individual colleges and departments to the new, consolidated UH Graduate School.

The new school, which has been in the works as a part of the reorganization of the office of Academic Affairs and mentioned in a consulting report for UH, will be run by Dmitri Litvinov as the interim vice provost and dean.

“The University of Houston has a rare opportunity to build its Graduate School from the ground up, to learn from the best practices of our Tier One peers, and to develop our own unique approaches to help equip our graduates with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in highly competitive 21st-century world,” said Litvinov, who is an electrical and computer engineering professor.

The University aims to provide new technology and organization to the 1,985 doctoral and 5,657 master-level students, such as automating online graduate admissions, which will go live for the Fall 2014 admissions cycle and will cover more than 70 percent of programs; creating a larger pool of funds to recruit a higher quality of doctoral students; developing the Graduate School website, which will go live this month; and fostering and supporting strong ties with key stakeholders including the recently created Graduate Student Organization.

“There is a need for an effective Graduate School that will not only have a significant impact on Tier One initiatives but also will bring about a paradigm shift in graduate education at the University by strategically leveraging and coordinating existing resources, developing policies and support infrastructures aimed at graduate student success and creating a culture of continuous quality improvement,” Short said.

Short also announced the establishment of the Graduate Assistant Success Task Force. The team, which will consist of both faculty members and graduate students, will provide recommendations on employment policies, tuition and fees policies and development for the graduate assistants who contribute to teaching a research.

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