Vanderbilt University recently announced that all future first-year doctoral students will receive a $2,000 stipend in order for the graduate school experience to be “supported” and “enhanced” while also placing entering students on “more firm financial footing.”
The $2,000 Launching Student Success stipend is categorized as a student grant.
The stipend for all doctoral students was made possible by a partnership among the Office of the Provost and leaders in each of the Vanderbilt Graduate School programs, according to a press release by the university.
The stipend model was designed by the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs C. Cybele Raver, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School C. André Christie-Mizell, and individual school deans.
“The Launching Student Success stipend signals Vanderbilt’s commitment to our Ph.D. students as they take this bold new step in their academic and professional trajectories,” Raver said in a statement. “We are excited to find new ways to support these students, who fully represent the innovation, dedication and courage required to create knowledge and make discoveries across academic disciplines.”
Vanderbilt is one of the first universities to offer a stipend of this kind to every incoming Ph.D. student, the university notes.
“These stipends are the result of direct feedback we received from students on challenges they face as they enter into doctoral programs,” Christie-Mizell said in a statement. “We want to help our students come together and thrive in pursuit of their academic endeavors.”
In addition to the Launching Student Success stipend, student groups such as the Graduate Student Council will assist the Graduate School in finding more enhancements to support doctoral education, the university adds.
Vanderbilt offers a wide range of doctoral programs in fields including: neuroscience; teaching and learning; special education; psychology; leadership, policy and organizations; and human and organizational development.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Vanderbilt University” by Vanderbilt University.
