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The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is making changes to its most closely watched college labels.
The American Council on Education, which helps manage the classifications, is making several revisions, effective in 2025. The one that will capture the most attention is its drastic simplification of the criteria that determine what caliber of research university an institution is. Carnegie Classification analysts have long used a complex formula, involving 10 factors and calculations that compare universities, to decide which ones will get the coveted “doctoral universities — very high research activity,” or “R1,” label. Now, just two factors distinguish that designation from the R2 level (“high research activity”): how much money an institution spends on research, and how many doctorates it awards in a year.
In 2025, the cutoff for the R1 label will be spending $50 million on research, and awarding at least 70 doctorates, in any research field, in a year. For R2, it’s $5 million in research expenditures, and 20 doctorates. There will also be a new category, “research colleges and universities,” for colleges with at least $2.5 million in research expenditures annually.
The new sorting is likely to startle administrators who’ve long used certain calculations and strategies to try to land their institutions on one of higher ed’s most exclusive lists. “It is a fairly big deal because the R1 designation has so much power in the higher-education industry,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor of higher education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.
For decades, those who have run the classifications insisted that their categories are merely neutral descriptors, not a ranked hierarchy that colleges are supposed to try to ascend. Nevertheless, many college leaders seek to lift their institutions to R1 status, or whichever category they see as a step above their own. Aspirations...