The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (Carnegie) today announced it has received a generous grant from the Andrew Carnegie Foundation, formerly Carnegie Corporation of New York, supporting its work to recognize colleges and universities creating upward mobility through the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education.
In 2025, the Carnegie Classifications identified institutions within the Student Access and Earnings Classification that are delivering both high access and competitive earnings — designating 478 institutions that serve a collective 2.75 million students as Opportunity Colleges and Universities (OCUs). This three-year investment will advance research, institutional engagement, best practices and stakeholder outreach to support more institutions to achieve the OCU designation, and to improve outcomes for an additional 2.5 million students.
For more than half a century, the Carnegie Classifications have been the gold standard for organizing and describing American higher education. The Student Access and Earnings Classification builds on that work by evaluating whether institutions provide access to students in communities they serve, and whether those students go on to successful, wealth-generating careers in the regions they live and work.
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About the Andrew Carnegie Foundation
The Andrew Carnegie Foundation, originally established as Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1911, works to reduce political polarization through grants that support ladders of opportunity and a more peaceful world. Its funding provides individuals with the knowledge and tools needed to improve their lives, participate fully in society, and advance peace. Carnegie.org
About the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
The mission of the Carnegie Foundation is to catalyze transformational change in education so that every student has the opportunity to live a healthy, dignified, and fulfilling life. Enacted by an act of Congress in 1906, the Foundation has a rich history of driving transformational change in the education sector, including the establishment of TIAA-CREF and the creation of the Education Testing Service, the GRE, Pell Grants, and the Carnegie Classifications for Higher Education. Today, the Foundation is dedicated to the transformation of the American high school and making the postsecondary sector a more vital engine for economic mobility.
Press Contacts
Angely Montilla (Andrew Carnegie Foundation)
212-207-6236 | aem@carnegie.org
Kito Cetrulo (Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching)
650-566-5100 | kcetrulo@carnegiefoundation.org
