The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education ®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
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/.
