The document outlines the ongoing efforts to redesign and modernize the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, an initiative steered by the partnership between the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Carnegie Foundation since early 2022. The primary goals are to integrate universal and elective classifications more cohesively, introduce new classifications focusing on social and economic mobility, and refine the overall framework to more accurately represent the diversity, public purpose, and impact of higher education institutions in the United States. Key issues identified during consultations include criticisms that the existing research classification system incentivizes the expansion of doctoral and research activity—often at the expense of student-focused outcomes—and fails to fully capture the multi-dimensional missions of colleges and universities.
The current Carnegie Basic Classification system segments institutions into a wide array of categories (33 in total) based on the highest degree conferred and research activity, but it predominantly captures a single dimension—research volume and capacity—through a complex, evolving methodology. Historically, research classifications (notably the R1 and R2 categories) have relied on arbitrary cutoffs, lack transparency, and are often misunderstood as measures of research quality rather than activity and comprehensiveness. The document notes that this has prompted strategic behavior among institutions aiming for R1 status, sometimes at the cost of mission fidelity. ACE and the Carnegie Foundation aim to address these drawbacks by enhancing methodological transparency, broadening the dimensions of classification to include factors like social and economic mobility, and creating more robust, learner-centric, and publicly oriented frameworks. Planned improvements for the 2024 update include clearer, replicable processes and streamlined methodologies.
