About Us

Land Acknowledgment

The land on which we gather is the unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe. The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, comprised of the descendants of indigenous people taken to missions Santa Cruz and San Juan Bautista during Spanish colonization of the Central Coast, is today working hard to restore traditional stewardship practices on these lands and heal from historical trauma.

What We Do

The Division of Graduate Studies, or the Graduate Division, administers graduate student degree progression in concert with the five academic divisions, from recruitment and admission to degree completion and graduation. The Graduate Division also administers the employment of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in partnership with the Academic Personnel Office, the academic divisions and hiring departments and research institutes. Between the admission and graduation of graduate students and between the hiring and exiting of postdocs, the Graduate Division collaborates with many other campus units in addition to the academic divisions to support graduate student and postdoctoral scholar success. UC Santa Cruz and the Graduate Division desire graduate student and postdoctoral scholar success in the overlapping realms of personal and professional growth. The Graduate Division’s mission is to support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars to make that success possible.

Graduate Programs and Terminal Degrees

UC Santa Cruz offers terminal graduate degrees (master’s and doctor’s) from 48 programs. The programs reside in and are administered by five academic divisions—Arts, the Baskin School of Engineering, Humanities, Physical and Biological Sciences, and Social Sciences; however, UC Santa Cruz supports and encourages interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary and independent design of doctor’s degrees by graduate students. Learn about UCSC graduate programs and degrees and how to apply to programs here. Find in-depth information by visiting the academic division websites and pages about their programs and graduate degrees:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

UC Santa Cruz is deeply committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse graduate student and postdoctoral scholar community. The Graduate Division seeks to be a catalyst for the development of scholarship, leadership, and professional skills of graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from every background.

The University has a compelling interest in making sure that people from all backgrounds are aware that access to the University is possible for talented students and postdoctoral scholars from all groups. But the University also recognizes that graduate education and postdoctoral scholarship may be unfamiliar to many. The Graduate Division staff and our campus partners strive to provide resources to acquaint all students and postdoctoral scholars with our academic culture and to support their development as career professionals.

The varied interests, range of life experiences, social, religious and ethnic backgrounds, and more in our graduate student and postdoctoral scholar population are essential to promoting the lively intellectual exchange and advanced research that strengthen the foundation of our campus community. UC Santa Cruz is a dynamic place, where people from different walks of life come together to explore, discover, and contribute new knowledge, leading to careers and lives of meaning, purpose, and impact.