Marshall University Graduate College - Definition

Marshall University Graduate College is a graduate school located in southern West Virginia.

Both Marshall University and West Virginia University, traditionally the only two state schools that offered advanced degrees, offered extension graduate degree programs throughout the area prior to 1969. In that year these programs were divorced from those institutions and placed in what was formally known as the University of West Virginia College of Graduate Studies, typically shortened to College of Graduate Studies and commonly referred to as COGS. This name proved unacceptable, as the formal name was unacceptably long and the short name did not contain a geographic identifier; it was therefore later changed to the West Virginia Graduate College.

The school had no campus and little full time faculty. It offered classes on the campuses of the various state colleges in the area and at other rented locations. The majority of the faculty consisted of professors at the state colleges. Its administrative center was at West Virginia State College in Institute, West Virginia.

In 1992 the school moved into a two-building campus on land donated by the Union Carbide Corporation in South Charleston, West Virginia. In 1997, the school was merged with the Graduate School of Marshall University, and was renamed to the present Marshall University Graduate College.

Graduates of the school are considered eligible for alumni status at Marshall University.