Movin’ On Up: Nine Universities Climb To Highest Carnegie Classification In 2021

Nine more universities have achieved the highest category of research universities in this year’s updated classification of higher education institutions by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

The new classification was released earlier this month; it’s now subject to a six-week review and comment period that extends through the end of January, after which the classifications become official.

The highest – and most coveted – rank is the “Doctoral/Very High Research Activity,” category, often referred to simply as “R1” institutions. That ranking is reserved for universities that:

• awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctoral degrees during the update year;
• had at least $5 million in total research expenditures, as reported through the National Science Foundation Higher Education Research & Development Survey;
• scored highly on two indices of research activity – the aggregate level of research activity, and per-capita research activity using research expenditure and research staffing measures divided by the number of full-time faculty within the assistant, associate, and full professor ranks.

In 2021, 137 institutions have R1 status. The nine universities climbing to the top rank this year are:

• Baylor University
• Kent State University
• North Dakota State University
• Old Dominion University
• University of Denver
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• University of Memphis
• Utah State University
• University of Texas at San Antonio

The Carnegie Classification was initiated in 1973 by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education. It’s now produced by the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University (IU), which describes it as “the main system for describing the diversity of U.S. colleges and universities.” According to an IU news release, “the tool is used by researchers, policymakers and administrators, as well as for informing grant-making and federal and state funding of institutions.”

This year will be the final time the classification is conducted by the IU center. It will be moving to Albion College in Michigan, which already conducts the Carnegie Community Engagement Classification, a system that designates the extent of community engagement by higher ed institutions.

The Carnegie Classification serves as the basis for the different categories of schools referred to in annual college rankings such as that compiled by U.S. News & World Report. It also categorizes institutions by undergraduate and graduate instructional programs, enrollment profile, undergraduate profile, size and setting.

Classification updates are completed every three years. In the 2018, the number of institutions that were classified declined from 4,600 to 4,300. The 2021 update classified just under 3,900 institutions.

“We’ve seen a contraction mostly through a combination of closures and mergers,” said Project Director Victor Borden, who is also a professor of higher education and student affairs in the IU School of Education.

Attaining R1 status is frequently a stretch goal for institutions that don’t have it, and it’s a very unwelcome outcome for those who lose it, like Brandeis University, the New Jersey Institute of Technology, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute did this year.

Strategic plans are often written with the aim of climbing up the classification ladder. Institutional budgets are drafted, facilities are built, academic programs are started, and new faculty are hired – all with an eye toward making it more likely that an R1 classification can be reached.

As might be expected, the new R1 institutions have trumpeted their achievements in the past few days. Baylor University set a goal in 2019 to reach R1 status by 2024. Commenting on the significance of reaching the goal ahead of schedule, Baylor President Linda Livingstone called it “just a tremendous accomplishment for Baylor for so many reasons.”

Utah State President Noelle E. Cockett claimed, “to achieve this top-tier designation has been years in the making and now sets our university apart as a premier research institution in the nation.”

And at the University of Memphis, President David Rudd was effusive, calling the news a “truly remarkable accomplishment that will stand forever as a moment of great significance in the history of our wonderful University.”