The modern research university has a dual mission: to educate its students, and to discover new knowledge through scholarship. These two missions enhance and inform one another: students at a research university in many instances are taught by the discoverers of the information being discussed in the course, and the classroom's free exchange of ideas can help sharpen research.

The quality of the research enterprise is what truly distinguishes a great university, permitting it to draw in the most talented scholars and the top students. NYU’s faculty are at the forefront of their scholarly disciplines, and their research helps shape the understanding of an enormous range of academic fields: from the mathematical sciences to economics, from philosophy to neural science, from art history to sociology.