University of Virginia College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

The College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences (A&S) remains the historical and intellectual foundation of the University of Virginia.

The largest of UVA’s 12 schools, A&S offers more than 50 undergraduate degrees and concentrations and 29 graduate degree programs. It educates 70% of all of the University’s undergraduate students (conferring upwards of 2,500 degrees each year), trains a quarter of the graduate students, appoints 60% of the tenure-track faculty and houses the core disciplines upon which UVA’s academic reputation is built.

Mission

The College’s mission is to educate the world’s future citizens and leaders and advance our collective knowledge through innovative research while also supporting the advancement of the Commonwealth, the nation and the world. To address both the historic challenges of the 21st century and the enduring questions that have fueled human inquiry for generations, the College offers a number of innovative educational programs, including:

 A unique, new liberal arts and sciences curriculum provides undergraduate students with the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind necessary to flourish in the complex and interconnected global environment of the 21st century.

· The College’s Democracy Initiative and Brain Institute (to name only two) offer students and faculty the opportunity to engage in game-changing cross-disciplinary research.

· Study-abroad programs like UVA London First and UVA Valencia First provide students opportunities to experience the world from new perspectives.

· Its innovative summer program, UVA Launchpad, prepares students for the world of work by combining liberal arts coursework, technical “bootcamp” style training and career-focused projects with real-world companies.

Outcomes

A&S graduates go on to successful and high-impact careers in virtually every field of endeavor. They serve as leaders and innovators across the world in every branch of business, in government, in the arts, and in the non-profit sector. The impact they have in the world is a result of the rigorous, well-integrated, and broad-based education they receive in the liberal arts and sciences while students of the College. Between 2014 and 2022, in the midst of a generational turnover of esteemed faculty, A&S has attracted more than 200 renowned faculty members, lured to UVA by the College’s culture of innovation and academic excellence. The College continues to emphasize the importance of recruiting the most talented professors and instructors while enhancing the faculty’s diversity. 

 Rankings

The Graduate School features five departments boasting top-30 US News & World Report rankings. In 2021, English was ranked 11th nationally, with its “American literature before 1865” graduate program ranked 7th overall; History was ranked in a tie for 18th, with its U.S. Colonial History program ranked 4th nationally; Psychology’s Ph.D. clinical psychology program was also ranked in a tie for 18th; Economics was ranked in a tie for 26th, and the Department of Politics jumped up nine spots to earn a tie for 28th.

 The pathway for UVA to become the best public university in the nation and one of the best universities anywhere in the world runs directly through the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. To enable UVA to achieve its comprehensive vision for the future, A&S is focused on four priorities: https://as.virginia.edu/2030-four-priorities.