The American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation announced on Wednesday plans to overhaul a framework that has been used to classify American colleges for nearly 50 years.
The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education’s basic classification is used to group thousands of colleges across the country based on the highest degree they award. But how an institution is classified has become synonymous with prestige — especially for research universities striving to be on the limited list of R1 colleges. Campuses on the list are considered to have strong research teams and funding, and a high number of doctoral students.
