Rutgers is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). Founded in 1900 by a group of fourteen universities offering the Ph.D. degree, the AAU currently consists of 60 American universities and two Canadian universities.

The association serves its members in two major ways. It assists members in developing national policy positions on issues that relate to academic research and graduate and professional education. It also provides them with a forum for discussing a broad range of other institutional issues, such as undergraduate education.