North Carolina Conference of Graduate Schools

Graduate education in the United States has been an enormously successful enterprise, serving the vital scientific, cultural and economic needs of the national and global community.
- Graduate schools are the centers of discovery, innovation, and application, leading to advancements that affect every one of us.

Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that by 2018 more jobs will require people with advanced degrees, specifically an 18% increase in jobs requiring a master's degree and a 17% increase for people with doctoral degrees.
- This is especially true in the NC where research and development is critical for the economy in RTP, the triad and in developing centers on the coast and in the western part of the state.
- Graduate education has a proven track record in job creation through innovation/research and new company start-ups

Finding innovative solutions to many of the challenges facing the United States and the world in the 21st century will depend upon a creative, knowledgeable, and highly skilled workforce.
- Undergraduate education is important to the creation of a stable economy because it provides students with foundational knowledge and work skills and prepares college graduates for a wide range of employment options. But it is graduate education that provides students with the advanced knowledge and skills that will secure our future intellectual leadership in the knowledge economy.

Many graduate students come to North Carolina for the high quality of graduate education here and subsequently stay in NC after graduation and contribute in important ways to NC's economic health. They provide a highly trained workforce, pay taxes, and enrich their communities in many ways.

The North Carolina Conference of Graduate Schools includes 22 campuses and offers more than 800 master's, doctoral and first professional degree programs in a wide variety of fields, including degrees in high-need areas such as education, social work, engineering, nursing, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields, among others.
Master's, doctorate, and first professional programs within the North Carolina Conference of Graduate Schools enroll more than 56,000 students.
Academic institutions within the North Carolina Conference of Graduate schools award more than 15,000 master's, doctorate, and first professional degrees annually.