The Graduate School-Newark is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge in an environment that encourages scholarly inquiry and intellectual growth. The school expects its graduate students to obtain a thorough understanding of their chosen academic disciplines and to acquire the analytical and creative skills required for original scholarship, research, and problem solving.

The Graduate School-Newark, with its own faculty and dean, was established in December 1975, but the history of graduate study in Newark goes back much further. Before 1975, the Graduate School-New Brunswick administered graduate programs in the arts and sciences on the Newark Campus. In the 1950s, the university added master's and doctoral programs in psychology in Newark. Between 1965 and 1972, the Newark Campus started master's level programs in economics, English, geological sciences, history, and political science.

The growth became even more dramatic after graduate education in Newark became an independent entity. The Graduate School-Newark now offers master's programs in American studies, biology, chemistry, computational biology, creative writing, economics, English, environmental geology, environmental science, global affairs, history, jazz history and research, liberal studies, nursing, applied physics, and political science. The school has Ph.D. programs in American studies, biology, chemistry, criminal justice, environmental science, global affairs, integrative neuroscience, management, mathematical sciences, nursing, applied physics,  psychology, public administration, and urban systems.

Several degrees are offered jointly with other institutions. Working with New Jersey Institute of Technology, the Graduate School-Newark confers M.A. and M.A.T. degrees in history, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in biology, an M.S. in computational biology, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in environmental science, an M.S. and Ph.D. in applied physics, and a Ph.D. in mathematical sciences. The Graduate School-Newark and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-New Jersey Medical School (UMDNJ-NJMS) offer an M.D./Ph.D. dual degree. The Graduate School-Newark also offers the M.S. degree in environmental geology in collaboration with the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers-New Brunswick and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Finally, a Ph.D. in urban systems is offered jointly by the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Rutgers' Graduate School-Newark,  and the UMDNJ-Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.