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News & Announcements

2018 Classification Update

We are planning to release an official update of the Carnegie Classifications® by the end of calendar year 2018. We are changing from updating institutional classifications based in a five-year to a three-year cycle; the shorter cycle will better reflect the rapidly changing higher education landscape.

Data Sources

The update will be primarily based on the 2016-17 IPEDS degree completions file, which is scheduled to be released by the middle of calendar year 2018. Additionally, we will use the next release (FY2017) of the NSF Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) data, which we anticipate will be available in Fall 2018, as well as the next release (Fall 2016) of the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering (GSS) data, expected in February 2018. It is likely that the Basic, Undergraduate Instructional Program, and Graduate Instructional Program classifications will be released by December, but we will likely delay the release of the Enrollment Profile, Undergraduate Profile, and Size and Setting classifications until the Fall 2017 IPEDS enrollment file is released in early 2019.

Changes to Expect

At this point in time, we are planning a change that will reshape membership of the Doctoral Universities and Master’s Colleges and Universities categories. We are doing so to accommodate “Doctor's degree – professional practice” within our methodology. These degrees, formerly referred to as “first professional degrees” and including such degrees as the MD, JD, Pharm.D., D.Div, etc., have previously not been considered as part of the Basic Classification methodology. We will soon release a proposal for this change and solicit feedback regarding our plans from the higher education community.

There will also likely be some minor adjustments to classifications that will be related to changes in the available data. We will know more about such changes as the new files are released. We will keep the community informed as we progress.

About the Carnegie Classification®

The Carnegie Classification® has been the leading framework for recognizing and describing institutional diversity in U.S. higher education for the past four and a half decades. Starting in 1970, the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education developed a classification of colleges and universities to support its program of research and policy analysis. Derived from empirical data on colleges and universities, the Carnegie Classification was originally published in 1973, and subsequently updated in 1976, 1987, 1994, 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015 to reflect changes among colleges and universities. This framework has been widely used in the study of higher education, both as a way to represent and control for institutional differences, and also in the design of research studies to ensure adequate representation of sampled institutions, students, or faculty.

Elective Community Engagement Classification

The Elective Classification on Community Engagement is under the stewardship of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education. Click here to access the website.

Using the Site

The menus at the top (in full screen mode) or through the menu icon above right (smaller views) provide access to extensive documentation as well as tools for looking up specific institutions, listing all institutions in a particular classification category, aggregating categories within a classification, and examining points of intersection across two or more classifications.

More Usage Guidelines

Institution Lookup

Access an individual institution's status within each of the six classification schemes. A summary table is provided that allows a user to:

  • view the institution display by clicking its name;
  • sort the listing according to name, control, or location by clicking the column heading;
  • filter the listing according to level, control, or any of the six classifications by clicking "filter results" at the top of the listing;
  • render the listing in printer-friendly format (opens in a new window); and
  • download the listing in CSV format (which can be opened in a spreadsheet program, such as Excel).

Listings

Standard Listings
Generate a list of institutions organized by single classification category. Users first choose the classification of interest, then the desired category within the selected classification. (For a spreadsheet file containing all institutions and all classifications, see Downloads).

Custom Listings
Generate a list of institutions that combines classifications and/or classification categories. With this tool, users can aggregate categories within a given classification (OR logic within classifications), identify institutions that are similarly classified on two or more classifications (AND logic between classifications), or do both to create a custom listing of institutions.

Definitions

Classification Descriptions
Find descriptions and category definitions for each classification.

Methodology
Access detailed description of the methodologies (logic and data sources) used to assign institutions to the categories. Includes links to supplementary documentation for such things as disciplinary mapping tables and more detailed information on index formulation.

Downloads

Files
Download data files and documents related to revision history.

Summary Tables
Locate summary tables for each classification, detailing the distribution of institutions and enrollments, and average enrollment, by classification category and control. Tables available in PDF (for viewing and printing) and CSV format (which can be opened in a spreadsheet program, such as Excel).

Resources

Links to relevant external resources and references, as well as a place to indicate recommendations for additions to the resource section.

Frequently Asked Questions (coming soon)

Recommended Citation (APA Format)

Current Version

Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research (n.d.). The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2015 edition, Bloomington, IN: Author.

Web Site

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education (n.d.). About Carnegie Classification. Retrieved (date optional) from http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/.

Prior Editions

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2011). The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2010 edition, Stanford, CA: Author.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2006). The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2005 edition, Stanford, CA: Author.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (2001). The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 2000 edition, Menlo Park, CA: Author.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1994). A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 1994 Edition. Princeton, NJ: Author.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1987). A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, 1987 Edition. Princeton, NJ: Author.

Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education (1976). A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, Revised Edition. Berkeley, CA: Author.

Carnegie Commission on Higher Education (1973). A Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Berkeley, CA: Author.

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Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education by Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. For a license to commercial and other uses outside the scope of the Creative Commons, contact ccihe@iu.edu.
Based on a work at http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu

CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATION and THE CARNEGIE CLASSIFICATION OF INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION are registered trademarks of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, used here under license agreement by the Indiana University Center on Postsecondary Research.


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