History of Graduate Education at UNT The institution that is now the University of North Texas was established in Denton in 1890 by Joshua C. Chilton as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institution. In 1899 the Texas Legislature accepted the buildings and grounds of what was then North Texas Normal College. Nine presidential terms and five more name changes have taken place since that date. Graduate work at the master's level was first offered at the University of North Texas in 1935 in response to an increasing demand from Texas school systems for teachers with more than four years of college-level education. A Graduate Division and a Graduate Council were formed to make policy. Master's degrees were first offered in art, biology, chemistry, economics, education, English, physical and health education, and Spanish, with the first master's degrees conferred in 1936. Beginning in 1946, master's programs were added in other departments and by 1950 the master's degree was available in almost every area in which the institution offered the bachelor's degree. Today master's degrees are offered in each academic department except geography and anthropology. However, graduate courses are offered in these areas and may be counted as minor work on other degrees. The Graduate School was established in 1946 as part of a major reorganization of the institution. The Board of Regents approved the first doctoral programs _ an EdD in education and a PhD in music _ in 1950. Today, doctoral programs are offered in all schools and colleges except the School of Merchandising and Hospitality Management. Throughout the development of the graduate program, the pattern has been to build master's programs on the base of well-established undergraduate programs and to build doctoral programs on the base of well-established master's programs. In 1961 the Texas Legislature approved the designation of North Texas State University in recognition of the institution's widening scope in higher education. The university was designated in 1964 by the Governor's Committee on Education Beyond the High School as one of the five major state-supported universities in Texas. In 1968, the Texas College and University System Coordinating Board confirmed the university's mission to offer "top-quality doctoral programs ...in the basic arts and sciences, teacher education, business administration and the fine arts" as well as "cooperative doctoral programs in other fields." In further recognition of its doctoral programs and scholarly research, the university was classified in 1976 and 1987 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Class I Doctorate- Granting Institution. On May 15, 1988, NTSU became the University of North Texas. Federation of North Texas Area Universities A new dimension in graduate education came in 1968 with the establishment of the Federation of North Texas Area Universities. With the guidance of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the federation was founded to expand and enrich the variety of graduate degrees available to residents of the area by sharing the resources of the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University, at Denton, and East Texas State University at Commerce. Master's and doctoral degree programs have been developed that permit students at one of the three participating institutions to complete a portion of their graduate work at either or both of the other two, although a single institution grants the degree. The University of North Texas grants eight master's and seven doctoral degrees that are part of the federation consortium. In addition, 16 program committees have been formed to encourage cooperative activities between the participating universities. UNT Health Science Center at Fort Worth The University of North Texas Health Science Center at Fort Worth educates osteopathic physicians and biomedical scientists and emphasizes education, research and community services that promote and support disease prevention and primary health care. The center, begun in 1970 as the privately funded Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (TCOM), became state-assisted and affiliated with the University of North Texas by action of the Texas State Legislature in 1975. The Health Science Center is governed by the University of North Texas Board of Regents. Currently, the Health Science Center's two components are TCOM and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. The graduate school offers master's and doctoral degrees in the biomedical sciences with specializations in anatomy and cell biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, microbiology and immunology, pharmacology, and physiology. Medical students enrolled at TCOM also may acquire research training through enrolling in a joint DO/MS or DO/PhD program in biomedical sciences. Graduate students at UNT or the UNT Health Science Center may enroll at either campus through special arrangements of the respective graduate schools. Joint research and service activities are underway in such areas as aging, health promotion and public health. At the undergraduate level, UNT and the UNT Health Science Center's Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine offer a joint program in which selected premedical students complete three years on the UNT campus in Denton, then transfer to the medical school in Fort Worth to begin the four-year medical curriculum. The basic science courses taken in the first year of the medical curriculum serve to complete a BA in biological sciences or chemistry or the BA or BS in biochemistry at UNT. Students in this program thus save a year in their medical training, reducing the usual eight-year program to seven. The Health Science Center campus is a 15-acre, $71 million medical- care complex in the heart of Fort Worth's cultural district. It is home to the Gibson D. Lewis Health Science Library, where virtually all the world's medical knowledge may be accessed by students, faculty, and the public through sophisticated medical information systems. Faculty expertise has fostered the development of five institutes at the UNT Health Science Center: the Texas Institute for Research and Education on Aging, the Substance Abuse Institute of North Texas, the North Texas Eye Research Institute, the Wound Care Institute and the Institute for Forensic Medicine. Students interested in a graduate program in biomedical sciences at the Health Science Center should contact the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, UNT Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Boulevard, Fort Worth, TX 76107, or call (817) 735-2560. Research UNT research programs focus on the solutions to problems at national, regional, state and local levels. To implement this approach, the university is developing new facilities specifically designed to provide state-of-the-art capabilities. External research funding reached $20,337,183 in the 1994 fiscal year. Of this total, 66.6 percent was for research, 25.0 percent was for instructional projects, 5.3 percent supported public service efforts and 3.1 percent supported student services and other projects. Federal government agencies provided 36.0 percent of the funds, state agency funds amounted to 11.1 percent and private sources (including business and industry) provided 52.9 percent. Specific areas of research are described in the catalog section devoted to each academic unit. External funding is an essential feature of university research. Many graduate faculty members receive grants and contracts from private foundations and corporations and from federal, state and municipal agencies. These funds are used in support of all forms of research activity, including employment of graduate research assistants. Fellowships are sometimes available in departments that have received federal training grants. Research is integral to graduate education. It provides the opportunity for a student to demonstrate creative and problem-solving talents in a unique way that is wholly different from the organized classroom experience. Research activity by graduate students, under faculty supervision, is at the heart of the graduate teaching/learning experience. Inquiries about financial support should be made directly to the academic unit in which the student intends to enroll. During the last few years, UNT has made a consistent commitment to expanding and improving the space and equipment available for research. The opening of the 60,000 square-foot Science Research Building in 1985 brought state-of-the-art facilities for research in the departments of biological sciences, chemistry and physics, the biochemistry program and the Institute of Applied Sciences. Together with other specialized laboratories spread throughout the campus, UNT provides high-quality space and equipment to support its teaching, research and service missions. In addition to funds granted by external sources to support research, funds appropriated by the Texas Legislature in support of research by faculty members of the university are allocated through a peer-review process by a faculty committee of eight members appointed by the Faculty Senate. The committee is chaired by the associate vice president for research and dean of the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies. The associate vice president for academic affairs is an ex- officio member. Faculty research grants are administered through the Office of Sponsored Research Administration. Faculty research funds provide equipment, material and part-time support of graduate students and faculty members. For example, a graduate student may be employed as a research assistant in one of the many research projects underway on the campus, generally in the department in which the student is studying for an advanced degree. As part of a research assistantship, students often are able to undertake projects that contribute to completion of their thesis or dissertation requirement. Results of faculty research include articles in professional and technical journals, published books and the development of new areas of research that may attract funding from sources outside the university.