The Graduate School

Grinter Hall, the UF Graduate School’s home base, is named for past pivotal dean Dr. Linton Grinter

Graduate education at the University of Florida has long roots that have expanded and matured phenomenally since its beginnings in UF's earliest days.

UF awarded its first Master of Arts degree (in English) in 1906, followed by its first Master of Science degree (in entomology) in 1908.

In 1930, UF’s first Doctor of Philosophy degree programs were approved, and Dr. James Nesbitt Anderson, professor of Greek and Latin, became its first Graduate Dean (1930-1938).

In 1964, UF vested the Graduate School with overall responsibility for its decentralized model of graduate education at work through departments, schools, and colleges, while engineering professor Dr. Linton Elias Grinter served as Graduate Dean and Director of Research (1952-1969), spearheading initiatives that fueled UF’s rise in standing as a graduate education hub.

In 1985, economics professor Dr. Madelyn McClintock Lockhart became UF’s first woman Graduate School Dean (1985-1993), and in 2007, educational psychology professor Dr. Henry T. Frierson became its first Black Graduate School Dean (2007-2021).

Since 2021, Dr. Nicole LaMee Perez Stedman, three-time UF alumna and Professor of Agricultural Education and Communication, is serving as UF’s first Hispanic Graduate School Dean. Building on the progress laid by her predecessors, she furthers their pioneering spirit with a keen eye on making UF graduate education ever more student-centered and conducive to professional career versatility, both within and outside of academia.

With some 16,000 graduate students and 3,000 graduate faculty in over 200 master's and 100 doctoral degree programs in 140 majors spread across 15 colleges, the Graduate School at the University of Florida has justly earned a solid worldwide reputation as a dynamic powerhouse of higher education, advanced scholarship, forward-thinking research, and game-changing innovation.