About

The Carnegie Classifications are a system for organizing the diverse set of degree-granting colleges and universities in the United States. They were originally intended to be a tool for researchers to further their study of higher education, with the first classification organizing institutions by the types of degrees they awarded and having a focus on the highest level of degree.

There are three different Carnegie Classifications:

• Institutional Classification, which is an updated version of the historic Basic Classification and organizes colleges and universities into groups of similar campuses based on the types of degrees they award, field of study, and size
• Student Access and Earnings Classification, which organizes colleges and universities into one of six classifications based on the types of students they enroll and how well former students are earning in the labor market as compared to their peers
• Research Activity Designations, which place institutions into one of three groups based on their research expenditures and research doctorates awarded

The Carnegie Classifications reflect the sector as it exists during a snapshot in time. All degree-granting colleges are automatically classified within each of those based on federally collected and published data.

There are also Carnegie Elective Classifications, which institutions must seek and apply for.

Institutions apply to be recognized for a particular Elective Classification theme and make extraordinary commitments to that theme. Elective Classifications are not awards. They are evidence-based documentation of institutional policy and practices focusing on areas such as institutional culture and mission, curricular and co-curricular programming, continuous improvement activities, and the recruitment and reward of faculty, staff, and students.

Becoming an elective classified institution requires the investment of substantial effort by participating institutions to provide evidence of the commitment to a special purpose, demonstrated with precision across the breadth of the institution. These Classifications are an institutional recognition given to an individual campus and as such requires that the self-study process consider and document many aspects of the institutional life of a campus.

There are three elective classifications: Community Engagement, Leadership for Public Purpose, and Sustainability.