Blog

May 13, 2024
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 …

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April 22, 2024
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 …

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February 1, 2024
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 …

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February 1, 2024
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 …

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December 14, 2023
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 …

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November 1, 2023
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 …

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September 21, 2023
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 …

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September 1, 2023
AIR Newsletter Highlights Future of Carnegie Classifications

The Association for Institutional Research (AIR) featured a Q&A with Mushtaq Gunja and Sara Gast, executive director and deputy executive director, respectively, of the Carnegie Classifications in its August edition of the eAIR newsletter, which provides news to the higher education research community. Reimagining the Carnegie Classifications: A Q&A details the vision and purpose behind modernizing the classifications, plans for changes …

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May 26, 2023
Carnegie Classifications Featured in Trusteeship Magazine

Mushtaq Gunja, executive director of Carnegie Classifications and senior vice president at the American Council on Education is featured in a Q&A in the May-June 2023 edition of Trusteeship Magazine, a publication for members of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB). A Question for Mushtaq Gunja shares more about the plans ahead for the Carnegie Classifications and …

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April 24, 2023
ACE Annual Meeting Highlights Work to Reimagine the Carnegie Classifications

This year’s ACE Annual Meeting (ACE2023), held in Washington DC April 13-15, with more than 1,000 higher education leaders in attendance, featured a range of sessions on new efforts to modernize the Carnegie Classifications. Attendees were able to learn more about the current work and plans ahead for ACE’s partnership with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which was …

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