Texas Tech Introduces New Doctoral Fellowship Program

Texas Tech University announced April 8 that it is dedicating $2 million to a new Doctoral Fellowship Initiative intended to increase the number of doctoral students enrolling at the university.

The fellowships are focused on areas where the students could help produce new external research funding, especially funding from federal sources such as the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Fellowships also have been awarded in areas such as creative and technical writing where an extraordinary level of academic excellence has been recognized for several years.

“For Texas Tech to achieve its goal of becoming the state’s next national research university, our research program must grow,” said Robert Smith, Texas Tech provost. “One important way to grow our research is to increase the number of doctoral students coming to Texas Tech. I believe these fellowships will help accomplish that goal.”

The fellowships will go to new doctoral students enrolling in the fall 2009 semester. The fellowships total $25,000 for four years. The initial program will fund about 80 fellowships.

“Texas Tech has outstanding research and high-quality, nationally-known research underway,” said President Guy Bailey. “With that foundation and the added incentive of these fellowships, I believe we can bring some of the very best and brightest young minds to our doctoral programs.”

The fellowships initially are focused in these areas:

• College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources
• College of Arts and Sciences
• College of Engineering
• Graduate School

Fellows funded under this program will be required to apply for individual nationally competitive fellowships at least once during the first two years of their doctoral study.