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EnglishWhat Are the Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs (GIDPs) at the University of Arizona?
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The Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs (GIDPs) at the University of Arizona are graduate programs that cross departmental boundaries, combining ideas, techniques, and expertise from traditional academic fields to support research and teaching at their intersections. They are a fit for prospective or current graduate students whose research interests span more than one discipline, and for anyone trying to understand how the university organizes interdisciplinary graduate training. The GIDP website at gidp.arizona.edu is the program's main information hub.
How GIDPs differ from traditional departments
A conventional graduate department trains students within a single discipline. GIDPs are built around the interfaces between disciplines instead. According to the program's own description, they "transcend departmental boundaries by facilitating cutting edge teaching and research where traditional disciplines interface." The stated goal is that fusing ideas and methods from established fields produces new research approaches and, in some cases, entirely new fields of study.
This model is not new at the university. The site notes that the founding directors of the GIDP recognized more than 60 years ago that this kind of work cannot be conducted effectively within traditional disciplinary boundaries, and the standard they set has endured.
The program in numbers
The homepage provides several figures that show the scale of the GIDPs:
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Graduate students enrolled in GIDPs | 400 |
| GIDP students funded through Graduate Assistantships | 65% |
| Campus departments that hired GIDP students as Graduate Assistants | 59 |
| Share of all doctoral degrees awarded that were GIDPs | 8.5% |
| Number of GIDPs | 21 |
Two things stand out for prospective students. First, a majority of enrolled GIDP students (65%) are supported through graduate assistantships. Second, GIDP students are hired as assistants across 59 departments on campus, which indicates that interdisciplinary training is valued by a wide range of hiring units, not just the programs themselves.
How the programs are organized
The GIDPs operate through collaborative relationships between colleges across campus and the 21 individual programs. The site describes this structure as creating "unique opportunities for students to pursue and realize their aspirations in new research." Interdisciplinary research and education are also framed as part of the university's broader mission and as one of the ways the university fosters innovation among faculty and students.
What to keep in mind
- Scope: The homepage describes the GIDPs collectively. Details such as admission requirements, deadlines, and degree requirements for a specific program are not covered there, so check the page for the individual program you are interested in.
- Funding: The 65% assistantship figure is an aggregate across all GIDPs. It does not guarantee funding in any particular program or year.
- Fit: GIDPs suit students whose questions genuinely cross disciplines. If your interests sit squarely within one field, a traditional department may be the more direct route.
For prospective students, the practical next step is to browse the 21 programs listed on the site, identify the ones closest to your research interests, and then review each program's own pages for application details.