CUNY Graduate Center

Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York

Motto	We Believe That Knowledge Is a Public Good
Type	Public post-graduate university
Established	1961 (1961)
Academic affiliations	City University of New York
Budget	>$114 million (2025)
President	Joshua Brumberg
Provost	Norman Carey (Interim)
Academic staff	1,840 (2015)
Students	3,100+
Doctoral students	2,621 (2024)
Location	New York City , New York , United States 40°44′55″N 73°59′01″W / 40.7485°N 73.9836°W / 40.7485; -73.9836
Campus	Urban, 570,000 sq ft (53,000 m2)[1]
Newspaper	The Advocate
Colors	Blue and white[2]
Website	www.gc.cuny.edu

The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Division of Graduate Studies at City University of New York, it was renamed to Graduate School and University Center in 1969. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, CUNY Graduate Center is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity".^[3]

CUNY Graduate Center is located at the B. Altman and Company Building at 365 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. It offers 32 doctoral programs, 18 master's programs, and operates over 30 research centers and institutes. The Graduate Center employs a core faculty of approximately 130, in addition to over 1,700 faculty members appointed from other CUNY campuses throughout New York City. As of fall 2025, the Graduate Center enrolls over 3,100 students, of which 2,600 are doctoral students.^[4] For the fall 2024 semester, the average acceptance rate across all doctoral programs at the CUNY Graduate Center was 16.3%.^[5]

The Graduate Center's primary library, named after the American mathematician Mina Rees, is part of the CUNY library network of 31 colleges that collectively holds over 6.2 million volumes. Since 1968, the CUNY Graduate Center has maintained an agreement with the New York Public Library, which gives faculty and students increased borrowing privileges at NYPL's research collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.^[6] The Graduate Center building also houses the James Gallery, which is an independent exhibition space open to the public, and television studios for NYC Media and CUNY TV.

The faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center include recipients of the Nobel Prize, the Abel Prize, Pulitzer Prize, the National Humanities Medal, the National Medal of Science, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Rockefeller Fellowship, the Schock Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Wolf Prize, Grammy Awards, the George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism, Guggenheim Fellowships, the New York City Mayor's Award for Excellence in Science and Technology, the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring, and memberships in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Education.