UCR offers over 50 academic and professional graduate programs that will challenge and prepare you for whatever path you will take after graduate school. A complete list of graduate programs offered provides more information about each program as well as access to the program and college websites. We encourage you to review these pages then contact the program and faculty to make sure that the graduate program would be the right fit for you.
Doctor of Philosophy Programs Master's Degree ProgramsOffering Master of Professional Accountancy (M.P.Ac.) program will fill this growing demand for qualified certified public accountants (CPA's), especially with a California law effective for years after 2013 that will require 150 semester hours (or 225 quarter hours) of applicable college credit. Offered by the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management in the School of Business.
Offering M.A., M.S. and Ph.D. programs, research focuses on how people live in a variety of settings and adapt to the processes of change and transformation, both historically and today. Upon completion, students will be able to engage in research, teaching, policy-related and/or administrative activities. Offered by the Department of Anthropology in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Students pursue an M.A. or Ph.D. in the history of Western and non-Western art from ancient to contemporary times, including the history of photography, emphasizing the interpretation of art in its historical and cultural contexts. Students take courses in both Western and non-Western areas. Offered by the Department of the History of Art in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The program's core lies in independent creative work done in consultation with faculty. Students can work in any medium. UCR has facilities for photography, painting, video, digital media and sculpture. Individual graduate studios are provided. Offered by the Department of Art in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Offering both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, the program prepares students for careers in science by expanding their knowledge of biochemistry and molecular biology, and by developing students' critical thinking skills and creativity. There is considerable flexibility to develop the curriculum to fit specific needs and interests. Offered by the Department of Biochemistry in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Students acquire a broad understanding of human disease, therapeutics and design of predictive experimental model systems through an innovative and rigorous program that integrates medical curriculum with mentored research and critical analysis of research-based modeling of human pathophysiology. Faculty come to the program from the School of Medicine and the Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Environmental Toxicology, Nematology, Cell Biology and Neuroscience, and Psychology, providing a wide range of perspectives and approaches to problems. Offered by the School of Medicine. Biophysics - M.S., Ph.D.
Biophysics is an interdepartmental program with faculty participating from a wide variety of department such as Biochemistry, Botany and Plant Sciences, Chemistry, and Physics. Areas of existing expertise on campus include biological electron transfer, biological imaging, computational and mathematical modeling of biological systems, macromolecular structure determination, neurobiophysics , protein engineering and spectroscopic methods of various sorts. Offered by the Department of Biophysics in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
The Ph.D.program at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management will fill a growing demand for doctoral students in management in the UC system. It is an academic program that will provide candidates with the chance to do intensive research in the field of business and is built upon an interdisciplinary theme with collaborations from other departments at UC Riverside, including economics, sociology, psychology, and statistics.
The MSBA program at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management prepares students for a career in the growing and important field of business analytics. As firms have access to increasingly large amounts of data about their customers, costs, and suppliers, highly trained analysts who examine this information have become essential. UCR’s graduate degree in business analytics will bring your business acumen and statistical computing skills to a level that allows you to make the most of vast business data.
The Ph.D. program is offered jointly with UC Irvine, UC Riverside and UC San Diego. Instruction takes place on the UC Irvine campus. It features an innovative curriculum and program of study that addresses the practical and theoretical questions confronting the humanities and classics in particular, as both enter the twenty-first century. Offered at UC Riverside by the Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The program is based on the comparative studies of world literatures and cultures. Students are admitted into the Ph.D. program only and students who do not already hold a master's degree in literature, comparative literature, or a comparable field must complete M.A. requirements while pursuing the Ph.D. The degree has three tracks: interliterary studies, interdisciplinary studies, and science fiction science, and literature. Offered by the Department of Comparative Literature and Foreign Languages in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The University of California-Riverside Master of Science in Computational Data Science (MS in CDS) degree focuses on the computational foundations of Data Science, providing an in-depth understanding of how large data sets can be stored, manipulated, visualized, and how to accomplish learning from such data sets. The recent rapid growth of artificial intelligence shows that no discipline today can function without relying on a deep analysis of data, whether it be manufacturing, logistics, health care, public safety, or the military. The MS in CDS is a comprehensive, in-person program, offered jointly by the Computer Science and Engineering Department and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department within the Bourns College of Engineering.
The program offers a M.S., which is ideal for professionals seeking greater depth in several areas, and a Ph.D. intended for well-qualified individuals who wish to pursue careers in academic or industrial research. Research programs include algorithm design, software engineering, embedded system design and theory of computation. Offered by the Computer Science and Engineering Department in the Bourns College of Engineering.
Students pursuing the M.F.A. program complete a core of course work in one writing discipline selected from fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, screenwriting, or writing for interactive media. Students participate in seminars and workshops where they explore cross-genre writing and the theoretical underpinnings of creative writing. This interdisciplinary program is offered in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
UCR Palm Desert's M.F.A. program in Creative Writing and Writing for the Performing Arts is designed for professionally oriented writers who are interested in a variety of literary forms. Students concentrate their work in one genre — fiction, screenwriting, creative non-fiction, poetry, or playwriting — but are required to take workshops in at least one other area. Classes are all held through the M.F.A. program at the UCR Palm Desert Campus.
The program provides a base for research in the field of cultural and historical studies of dance. Consideration of all dimensions of dance, including digital culture, body politics, media studies, mobilization and class, ethnicity, sexuality and gender, and corporeal knowledge and choreography are considered. Offered by the Department of Dance in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Emphasizing general geology combined with specialization in one of 16 fields, including paleobiology, neotectonics, organic geochemistry, stratigraphy and sedimentology. A rich and diverse array of study options is available to students. Offered by the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciencesin the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
PhD: Areas of Research
Offered by the Department of English in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences The Ph.D. program encourages graduate students to become teachers and scholar-critics capable of significant original literary scholarship. Students work in close consultation with the graduate adviser to map a course of study including seminar work, fulfillment of the foreign language requirement, the successful completion of two qualifying exams, and the dissertation.
With programs leading towards M.S. or Ph.D. degrees, students have the opportunity for research specialization in more than a dozen areas, including behavior, biochemistry, nematology and pathology. Offered by the Department of Entomology in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
This interdepartmental program provides students with broad training and exposure to the many facets of environmental science, as well as the specialized study of a specific research topic. Administered by nearly 50 UCR faculty from different environmentally related disciplines, research and course offerings are diverse, ranging from fundamental soil, aquatic, and atmospheric chemistry through resource and environmental management, economics and policy, to a host of other areas within both the natural and social sciences. Offered by the Department of Environmental Sciences in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
An integrated interdisciplinary program in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences that leads to an M.S. or Ph.D. The program teaches the scientific principles of toxicology, focusing on biology, chemistry and the ways that xenobiotics and toxins interact with the biosphere.
The Ph.D. program has a special focus on public policy and community studies, the connection of people of color in the United States with those in the diaspora (international affairs), and culture. Offered by the Department of Ethnic Studies in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
San Diego State University (SDSU) offers a Doctoral degree program in Evolutionary Biology in collaboration with the University of California, Riverside (UCR) graduate program in Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology. This joint program involves research training under the supervision of participating SDSU Faculty in areas within the Department of Biology, one academic year of residence at UCR under the supervision of UCR Faculty in the Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology graduate program. Prospective graduate students are encouraged to visit the SDSU Graduate Access Page to apply; once accepted through SDSU portal then an application to the Evolutionary Biology Joint Doctoral SDSU/UCR (JDEB) program at UCR may be submitted.
Offering both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, the program features specialization tracks in evolutionary biology, ecology and physiology. The M.S. program is a research based program, while the Ph.D. program requires the demonstration of broad knowledge of cell and molecular biology, evolutionary biology, or physiology, and the ability to conduct original research. Offered by the Department of Biology in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Highly motivated choreographers pursuing the M.F.A. conduct both research in dance and an assessment of contemporary issues in dance aesthetics, history and culture. The focus is the development of experimental choreography that challenges cultural assumptions and is informed by a critical and reflective perspective. The program is especially designed for the practicing artist who desires to return to an institutional context for advanced study and to examine their own work as they produce new work. Offered by the Department of Dance in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The new Master's of Finance (MFin) program offered by the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management addresses the unmet demand for trained finance professionals. The MFin program will enable finance executives to gain the specialized expertise required for professional advancement, and prepare students who seek to pursue professional certifications in finance.
The program features diverse research opportunities ranging from current topics in cellular and organismal biology, through mechanisms of molecular evolution, to quantitative genetics, population structure and dynamics, to conservation biology. The program serves both computationally- oriented informaticians and "wet-bench"-oriented genomicists. Offered by the Department of Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Graduate study in history at the UCR culminates in the Ph.D. degree in history or in the professional M.A. degree in public history, which prepares graduates for careers in museums, archives and historical preservation. Students can also earn the M.A. degree in history, which provides a strong background for careers in professions such as teaching, government and journalism. Offered by the Department of History in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The M.B.A. program at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management balances the art and science of management, emphasizing managing through information, while recognizing the global environment of management. Students are prepared to excel in a competitive international environment. Teamwork, relationships and communication are underscored.
The Professional M.B.A. program at the A. Gary Anderson Graduate School of Management offers the same quality of teaching as the M.B.A. program. But the two programs differ in key ways: The Professional M.B.A. can be completed on a fast track (in as little as 20 months) or courses can be taken over several years, depending on the individual student's schedule. The Professional M.B.A offers evening courses so students can still work or meet other day-time obligations while enrolled in the program.
Students in MSE acquire a solid background in the basic sciences and in the engineering of materials, with hands-on laboratory experience in nano-scale materials characterization and processing. This program prepares graduates for a variety of careers in fields such as nanotechnology, electronics, computing, the biomedical, automotive and aerospace industries, as well as government agencies and research laboratories. Offered by Materials Science and Engineering in the Bourns College of Engineering.
Offering a M.A., M.S., and Ph.D., the program offers easy access to two dozen faculty members whose research covers a range of specialties, including Algebra/Algebraic Geometry, Analysis and PDEs, Applied Mathematics, Geometry and Topology, and Mathematical Physics. Offered by the Department of Mathematics in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Offering M.S. and Ph.D. programs, opportunities are available for study in a wide range of disciplines, including molecular microbiology, plant microbiology, and environmental microbiology. The training that students receive in Microbiology will prepare them for teaching and research careers in colleges and universities, as well as basic and applied research in private, industrial, and government laboratories. Offered by the Graduate Program in Microbiology in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
The Ph.D. program is designed to prepare students for careers in research and teaching, as well as in scientific administration. It focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to understanding nervous systems ranging from the molecular and cellular to the behavioral and cognitive. Offered by the Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Neuroscience in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
This program specializes in analytic philosophy, contemporary European philosophy, and the history of philosophy. Students become acquainted with the state of discussion in central areas of contemporary philosophy and are given the skills needed to conduct their own research. Students who have successfully completed a master's degree in philosophy may be invited to pursue the Ph.D. degree. Offered by the Department of Philosophy in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
This highly competitive program offers both M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. The department features a wide ranging set of research topics, all geared towards improving disease management of California's crops. Offered by the Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
Total graduate enrollment is limited to fewer than 40 students. Offered by the Department of Political Science in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The Ph.D. program offers areas of specialization in cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social/personality psychology and systems neuroscience. There is also cross-cutting and interdisciplinary study in quantitative psychology, in family studies, positive psychology and health psychology. Individual programs can also be created. There is no concentration in clinical psychology, but many graduate students study applied topics such as the promotion of the mental and physical health of children, adolescents, and the aging. Offered by the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Featuring a M.A. degree that allows a broad study of religious traditions and a more specialized Ph.D. degree that prepares students to enter into academia as researches and instructors, the small program engages religion as a political and social dynamic on the international stage, critically appraising the force of religions in contemporary global cultures, contacts, and conflicts. Offered by the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Centered on the study of the arts and cultural life in Southeast Asia and the diasporas. The program is geared towards understanding the region and making sense of and engaging with various forms of culture. The region will be studied with an emphasis on historical, religious and ethnographical perspectives. Offered by the interdepartmental SEATRiP Program in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
Designed to prepare scholars for teaching and research in Spanish and Latin American literature and cultural studies. The program is organized primarily for students seeking the Ph.D. degree, with the M.A. degree awarded in the course of a student's progress. A small number of students only complete the M.A. as advanced study for teaching in high schools or community colleges. Offered by the Department of Hispanic Studies in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
The M.S. program emphasizes applications and theory, providing an operational knowledge of the subject. It is often completed by students pursuing the Ph.D. program in Applied Statistics. Offered through the Department of Statistics in the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.
The program's core lies in independent creative work done in consultation with faculty. Students can work in any medium. UCR has facilities for photography, painting, video, digital media and sculpture. Individual graduate studios are provided. Offered by the Department of Art in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.
