Renewing the Social Contract for Higher Education
With public confidence in colleges at a crossroads, Ted Mitchell and Timothy Knowles call for a new social contract centered on student success—and offer the Carnegie-ACE classification as a path forward. Read the full post on Higher Education Today
Why 2025 is the year of significant updates to the Carnegie Classifications
Since the Carnegie Classifications were first introduced in 1973, the world – and higher education – has changed tremendously. But the classifications have not. As a result, the Carnegie Classifications largely has used a 50-year-old perspective to organize U.S. colleges and universities as they operate today, and given how the classifications are used by policymakers and others, that has resulted in …
Institutions Across U.S. React to New RCU Designations
For years, the Carnegie Classifications research designations were only open to a narrow set of doctoral-granting institutions. Many colleges and universities across the country were engaging in meaningful research, however, their contributions were not being recognized. As part of our work to redesign the Carnegie Classifications, last month we introduced a Research College and University (RCU) designation to identify research happening …
Centering Students in Our Draft Framework for the Carnegie Social and Economic Mobility Classification
Life-saving research. World-shaping cultural exchange. A shared sense of civic participation. Creating pathways for adults to gain new skills. Equipping local employers with a ready workforce. The contributions colleges and universities make to American life are as varied as the institutions themselves. But from the smallest community college to the largest public university, one shared mission stands above the rest: particularly …
Early Insights from Our Work to Design a New Social and Economic Mobility Classification
College and university leaders, faculty, funders, and policymakers routinely and rightly cite social and economic mobility as a core goal. Unfortunately, existing data and analyses often fail to account for the distinct missions, unique student populations, and complex operating environments of institutions. These gaps make it difficult for higher education leaders and stakeholders to understand how effectively schools are leveling the …
Rethinking Higher Education Classifications For Today’s Institutions
By: Alison Griffin This piece originally posted on Forbes on January 27, 2024. My 16-year-old son has a piece of paper, thumbtacked to his bedroom wall: a list of about 30 colleges and universities, carefully ordered alongside checkmarks and crosshatches. Upon first glance, the list wouldn’t make much sense to anyone, but perhaps another teenager. The way in which he has grouped colleges …
How Carnegie Classification Updates Could Affect State Higher Education Policy
By: Mushtaq Gunja and Sara Gast This piece originally posted on Education Commission of the States on January 27, 2024. Since 1973, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education has served as the predominant framework to classify American colleges and universities. It was originally created for researchers as a way of organizing the higher education sector, but since the release over 50 …
Reimagining the Elective Classifications
By Marisol Morales As part of the broader efforts to reimagine the Carnegie Classifications announced in 2022, the Universal and Elective Classifications were also brought together in the same organizational home at the American Council on Education to help further show the breadth and range of the missions and purposes of American higher education. That transition has also prompted the exploration …
Changes to the Next Iteration of the Carnegie Classifications: We Want Your Feedback
by Mushtaq Gunja and Sara Gast Today, the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching announced that the 2025 Carnegie Classifications will include a new Basic Classification that will organize institutions based on multidimensional categories that reflect a variety of characteristics about today’s colleges and universities. While this is an exciting development in our work …
Reflections on a Year Studying Carnegie’s Basic Classification and a Look Ahead
By Mushtaq Gunja and Sara Gast As the work continues to modernize and reimagine the Carnegie Classifications, we want to share insights we have gained as we look toward the release by early 2025 of a new set of classifications that will include a new research classification methodology. The Carnegie Classifications were created to be a tool to organize the diverse …