Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is a framework for classifying, or grouping, colleges and universities in the United States. The primary purpose of the framework is for educational research and analysis, where it is often important to identify groups of roughly comparable institutions.[1] The classification includes all accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States that are represented in the National Center for Education Statistics Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

The Carnegie Classification was created by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (hereafter referred to as "The Carnegie Foundation") in 1973; reports were issued in that year, 1976, 1987, 1994, and 2000. The latest report, issued in 2005, has substantially reworked the classification system. It is based on data from the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 school years.[2]

Contents

General description

Information used in these classifications comes primarily from IPEDS and the College Board. Classifications of particular institutions can be found on the Carnegie Foundation's Institution Lookup website.

Basic classification

The number of institutions in each category is indicated in parentheses.[3]

Doctorate-granting Universities

Doctorate-granting Universities are those institutions that awarded at least 20 doctorates in 2003–04. These Universities are further classified by their level of research activity, as measured by research expenditures, number of research doctorates awarded, number of research-focused faculty, and other factors.[4]

Master’s Colleges and Universities

Master’s Colleges and Universities are those institutions which "awarded at least 50 master’s degrees in 2003–04, but fewer than 20 doctorates." [4]

Baccalaureate Colleges

Baccalaureate Colleges are those institutions at which "bachelor’s degrees accounted for at least 10 percent of all undergraduate degrees and they awarded fewer than 50 master’s degrees (2003–04 degree conferrals)." [4]

Associates Colleges

Associates colleges are defined as institutions whose "highest degree conferred was the associate’s degree or if bachelor’s degrees accounted for less than 10 percent of all undergraduate degrees (2003–04 degree conferrals)."[4]

Special Focus Institutions

Special Focus Institutions were classified "based on the concentration of degrees in a single field or set of related fields, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Institutions were determined to have a special focus with concentrations of at least 80 percent of undergraduate and graduate degrees. In some cases this percentage criterion was relaxed if an institution identified a special focus on the College Board’s Annual Survey of Colleges, or if an institution’s only accreditation was from a body related to the special focus categories." [4]

Tribal Colleges

Tribal colleges are members of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

Not classified

There were 26 institutions not classified within the Basic Classification.

Undergraduate Instructional Program

The Undergraduate Instructional Program classification combines (a) the ratio of Arts and sciences and professional fields (as defined in the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP)) and (b) the coexistence of programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels (again using the CIP).[5]

Arts and sciences and professional fields

Institutions are categorized based on the proportion of undergraduate majors in arts & sciences or professional fields based on their 2-digit CIP.[5]

Graduate Coexistence

Institutions are categorized based on the proportion of undergraduate and graduate programs (defined by their 4-digit CIP) that coexist.[5]

Graduate instructional program

The Graduate Instructional Program classification indicates (a) if the institution awards just Master's degrees or Master's degrees and doctoral degrees and (b) in what general categories the graduate degrees are predominantly awarded. Institutions that do not award graduate degrees are not classified using this scheme.[6]

Postbaccalaureate graduate programs

Institutions that offer graduate and professional programs (such as law schools) but do not award the doctorate are classified as having "Postbaccalaureate" graduate programs.[6] These programs are classified by the fields in which the degrees are awarded.

Doctoral degree programs

Institutions that offer doctoral degrees, including medical and veterinary degrees, are classified by the field in which the degrees are awarded.[6]

Enrollment profile

The Enrollment Profile of institutions are classified according to (a) the level of the highest degree awarded and (b) the ratio of undergraduate to graduate students.[7]

Undergraduate profile

The Undergraduate Profile of institutions is classified according to (a) the proportion of part-time undergraduate students to full-time students, (b) the institutions selectivity in admitting undergraduate students, and (c) the percentage of students who transfer into the university.[8]

Enrollment status

Enrollment status is classified according the ratio of part-time to full-time students (degree seeking students in the case of 4-year institutions).[9]

Achievement characteristics/selectivity

Selectivity is classified according to the SAT and ACT scores of first-time first-year students; only 4-year or higher institutions are classified.[8]

Transfer origin

Transfer origin characterizes the percentage of students who transfer to the institution; only 4-year or higher institutions are classified.[8]

Size and setting

The Size and Setting classification classifies institutions according to (a) the size of their student body and (b) the percentage of student who reside on campus. Exclusively graduate and professional institutions and special-focus institutions are not classified by their size and setting.[10]

Size

The size of institutions is based on their Full-time Equivalent (FTE) enrollment. FTEs are calculated by adding the number of full-time students to one-third the number of part-time students. 2-year colleges are classified using a different scale than 4-year and higher colleges.[10]

Setting

The setting of institutions is based on the percentage of full-time undergraduates who live in institutionally-managed housing.[10] Two-year institutions are not classified by their setting.[11]

2005 edition

In contrast to previous classifications, the 2005 classification scheme is a "set of multiple, parallel classifications." [12] According to Alexander C. McCormick, Senior Scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and director of the classifications project, "The five new classifications are organized around three central questions: 1) What is taught, 2) to whom, and 3) in what setting?"[13] In addition to the new classification categories, the previously used classification scheme ("Basic classification") has been revised.

The Carnegie Foundation is also developing one or more voluntary classification schemes that will rely on data submitted by institutions.[12] The first will focus on outreach and community engagement and the second on "how institutions seek to analyze, understand, and improve undergraduate education."[13]

The Carnegie Foundation has no plans to issue printed editions of the classifications. Their website has several tools allowing researchers and administrators to view classifications.[14]

Revisions in the basic classification

The "basic classification" is an update of the original classification scheme. In addition to changing the names of some categories, the 2005 revision differs from previous editions in that it:[4]

  1. Splits Associates colleges into subcategories. This is based on the work of Stephen Katsinas, Vincent Lacey, and David Hardy at the University of Alabama and is an update of work funded in the 1990s by the Ford Foundation.
  2. Categorizes doctorate-granting institutions according to their level of research activity. This level is calculated using multiple measures, financial and otherwise.
  3. Simplifies the measurement of doctorate degrees awarded.
  4. Divides Master’s colleges and universities into three categories based on the number of Master's degrees awarded.
  5. Deprecates "Liberal Arts" terminology.
  6. Modified the criteria separating Master's and Baccalaureate institutions. Institutions formerly classified as Master’s Colleges and Universities are now classified as Baccalaureate Colleges.
  7. Requires institutions to have higher levels of single-field or related-field concentration for designation as special-focus institutions and utilizes more sources of information to identify special-focus institutions.
  8. Splits the "Schools of engineering and technology" category into two categories and eliminates the "Teacher’s colleges" category.
  9. Measures and classifies service academies using to the same criteria as other institutions.

Previous editions

Prior to the 2000 edition, the Carnegie Foundation categorized doctorate-granting institutions according to the amount of Federal funding they received. The 2005 edition categorizes doctoral-institutions according to their research support but uses a more complex formula than used in previous editions. Despite the fact that it is no longer used by the Carnegie Foundation, the descriptor Research I is still commonly used in reference to universities with the largest research budgets, often by the institutions themselves in their promotional materials.

References

  1. ^ "The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education". Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. no date. http://classifications.carnegiefoundation.org/. Retrieved 3 January 2010. 
  2. ^ "Basic Classification Technical Details". Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 2005. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/index.asp?key=805. Retrieved 24 September 2008. 
  3. ^ "Basic Classification Tables". Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 2005. http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/classifications/index.asp?key=805. Retrieved 24 September 2008. 
  4. ^ a b c d e f The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). 2005 Carnegie Classifications Initial Release.
  5. ^ a b c The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Technical Details > Undergraduate Instructional Program.
  6. ^ a b c The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Technical Details > Graduate Instructional Program.
  7. ^ The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Technical Details > Enrollment Profile Program.
  8. ^ a b c The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Technical Details > Undergraduate Profile.
  9. ^ The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Undergraduate Profile classification flow chart.
  10. ^ a b c d e The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Technical Details > Size & Setting.
  11. ^ The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Size and Setting classification flow chart.
  12. ^ a b The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education website.
  13. ^ a b McCormick, Alexander C. (2005). A New Set of Lenses for Looking at Colleges and Universities, Carnegie Perspectives, November 2005.
  14. ^ The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2005). Carnegie Classification FAQs: Will the classifications be available in print?.

External links