New fellowship focuses on PhD students

Twenty new PhD students a year will be awarded an additional $10,000 for five years under a new fellowship program created to recruit top PhD students to UB.

The Graduate School Fellowship will begin in fall 2023.

“We’re always looking to expand our funding because we want to recruit the very best students and compete with the very best of the public universities,” says Graham Hammill, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School.

The new fellowship is another component of the university’s “PhD Excellence Initiative,” launched in fall 2019 to recruit the best PhD students, enhance diversity in the programs and improve retention and time to degree.

Since then, the university has raised the minimum PhD stipend to $20,000 for full-time, fully funded students on 10-month appointments as teaching, research or graduate assistants. Last year, the university also began supporting the cost of broad-based fees for PhD students who are full time and fully funded.

“This fellowship is another example of UB’s commitment to PhD education,” Hammill says.

The Graduate School Fellowship awards a $10,000 “top-up” stipend per year for five years, meaning the $10,000 is in addition to a recipient’s regular stipend.

“So, if their stipend is $20,000, this top-up would make it $30,000 for five years,” Hammill explains.

Along with the university’s Presidential and Schomburg fellowships — also devoted to PhD and graduate students — the Graduate School Fellowship now gives UB more resources at its disposal to keep pace with some of most competitive PhD programs in the nation, he says.

“It increases our central fellowship funds by about 33%. That’s a significant increase for us,” Hammill says. “We really can recruit for the very best students with this fellowship fund.”

The Office of Fellowships and Scholarships will administer the funding. Details about the nomination and award process have been provided to decanal units, which may nominate up to four students a year for the award.

The primary consideration for nomination is “student excellence,” as defined by the unit’s holistic admission process, but diversity also will be taken into account.

“Given the research opportunities and objectives we have in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences over the next few years, we will need to bring in more top PhD students, who will be an important part of what we are trying to do,” says Dean Kemper Lewis. “This new Graduate School Fellowship is going to help us achieve that goal.”

Offering competitive stipends is primary to helping UB recruit and retain the very best doctoral students, says Gary Pollack, dean of the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“The honorific aspect of these fellowships will be attractive to many candidates, as will the opportunity to be a member of a community of similarly honored students,” Pollack says. “The establishment of these fellowships is a tangible demonstration of UB’s commitment to doctoral education and to the faculty-led research and scholarship that is fueled by graduate programs.”