Bradford enlists elite

Bradford University opened its first graduate school in the faculty of social sciences and humanities this week, writes Alison Utley.

The school will coordinate training programmes for graduates and ensure mutual support and a "wider perspective on their education", according to a university spokesman who stressed that the relatively small numbers of postgraduates in each department meant they ran the risk of isolation from university life.

Bradford's other two faculties - applied and natural sciences and engineering - are expected to follow suit and create their own graduate schools in the near future. "We want to promote interdisciplinary study and to be able to share good practice as well as focusing attention on our existing graduate doctoral programme," the spokesman said.

Roughly half of the old universities either have graduate schools or are planning to create them according to a census last year.

Issues raised by the dramatic growth in graduate education are under scrutiny by a national committee chaired by Martin Harris, vice chancellor of Manchester University.