Hello, everyone. Carnegie Classification released the new classification method. Can anyone predict which schools will become new doctoral universities and participate into USNews College Ranking on 2019? Link: http://carnegieclassifications.iu.edu/. Here are new changes. You can check the website.
“Since its inception, the Carnegie Classification has employed every degree type except the professional
practice doctorates in the algorithms that determine the Basic Classification. While it is true that these
degrees were considered for the Graduate Instructional Profile Classification, they have been either
uncounted or treated like master’s degrees within the Basic Classification.
Professional practice doctorates, previously referred to as “First Professional Degrees,” include
professional degrees awarded in Medicine (MD), Veterinary Medicine (DVM), Osteopathy (DO),
Optometry (OD), Law (JD), Ministry (DMin), Divinity (DDiv), as well as an increasing number of
additional health fields, such as Physical Therapy (DPT), Audiology (DAud), Occupational Therapy
(DOT), Nursing Practice (DNP), Psychology (PsyD), and other areas. Moreover, because institutions
decide what category to report each doctorate they confer, there is inconsistency regarding how some of
these degrees are reported, especially with such degrees as the Education Doctorate (EdD), Doctor of
Business Administration (DBA), Doctor of Public Administration (DPA), and additional “other than
PhD” doctorates. Nonetheless, the exclusion of professional practice doctorates has been one aspect of
the Basic Classification that we determined is worth addressing in the forthcoming 2018 update of the
Carnegie Classification.
The general design of this change is a re-crafting of the existing doctoral university categories to
accommodate the inclusion of what we now estimate will be between 125 and 175 institutions (depending
on the thresholds we establish) into the existing categories, which included 334 institutions in the 2015
update. The vast majority of these institutions will come from the Master’s Colleges and Universities
categories, which included 763 institutions in the 2015 Classification. We expect there will also be
changes due to increased research/scholarship doctorate production among other institutions that were
classified in the Master’s Colleges and Universities categories in 2015.
It is also possible that some institutions currently classified within the baccalaureate colleges categories
would qualify as doctoral universities under this change; however, we will extend application of the
“Exception Rule” that enables such institutions to remain classified as baccalaureate institutions if they
are primarily small, residential, undergraduate institutions that have one or few post-baccalaureate
program(s).
Plan for Restructuring the Doctoral Universities Categories
Our working plan is to designate what is currently the “R3: Doctoral Universities – Moderate research
activity” category into a yet to be officially named, “Doctoral/Professional Universities” category. The
other two categories will be labeled something like, “Research Universities,” with a yet to be determined
distinction that reflects the differences in levels of research activity, using essentially the same research
activity index as in prior years.1
We intend to maintain roughly the same number of institutions (115, plus or minus a few) within what is
now the “R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest research activity” category. The exact number will depend
upon the distribution of institutions across the research activity index. We will be looking for a break
point that yields as much space as possible between the institutions above and below that point.
1
We are currently planning only two minor changes to the research activity index: 1) standardizing the raw and
aggregate indices before determining the composite index (in 2015, we determined the composite index before
standardizing); and 2) using average rank for ties in rank on each of the component measures instead of maximum
rank.
The second category, currently labeled “R2: Doctoral Universities – Higher research activity,” is going to
expand in size considerably, perhaps having as many as 150-175 institutions. The new
“Doctoral/Professional University” category would have approximately 200 institutions.
Determining the Thresholds for the Planned Change
To implement this change, we will need to determine two sets of thresholds:
Threshold 1: Criterion for being included within the Doctoral Universities categories
The first threshold is for inclusion into the doctoral university categories. It would involve a combination
(or total) of various types of doctoral degrees conferred. At the most liberal end of the spectrum, we
would extend the 20 minimum threshold to include all types of doctoral degrees (research/scholarship,
professional practice, and other). We are also considering thresholds such as a minimum of 20
research/scholarship doctorates (the current threshold) or a minimum of 20 professional practice
doctorates. Another consideration is whether the institution must confer doctorates of any type in more
than one field (four-digit level CIP code category) or general disciplinary area (two-digit CIP code
category).
Threshold 2: Distinguishing between Professional/Doctoral and Research Universities
The second threshold consideration pertains to which institutions will be in one of the two Research
University categories. As noted, the distinction within the two categories will continue to be based on the
Research Activity Index. Therefore, the most liberal threshold that we are considering is that the
institution must have reported data on both the NSF Higher Education Research and Development
(HERD) Survey and the NSF/NIH Graduate Student Survey (GSS). However, we may also add in a
threshold for minimum total research expenditures ($5 million, $10 million, $20 million, etc.) and/or a
threshold for the staffing number (total post-doctorates in science, engineering and health; and nonfaculty,
doctorate-trained researchers [e.g., >0, 5, 10]).
We currently have the data available to assess the first threshold, but will not receive the NSF HERD
survey data until early November.”