Brown University Graduate School registration records (OF.1ZGR.2)

Administrative History

Graduate study began at Brown in 1850 with students receive a master's degrees with an additional year of study. This option was discontinued in 1857, but graduate study was revived again in 1887, when the faculty and University Fellows added the master's and the PhD degrees to Brown's repertoire. The first master's degrees were awarded in 1888, and the first PhD in 1889. In 1903, a Graduate Department was established with its own dean. In May 1927, the Graduate Department became the Graduate School. While Brown led the charge for graduate, and especially doctoral, education in the 1880s-1930s, its embrace of graduate education remained modest in scale. Undergraduate enrollment grew at Brown in the 20th century, but its graduate population remained stable--so that by the 1970s, it was one of the smallest graduate schools among its cohort. New master's programs were added in the 1990s and early 21st century. On October 12, 1968, the Graduate Center was dedicated. It brought graduate housing together with administrative offices for the deans. The Graduate School moved in 2004 to its current home in the Horace Mann building.