Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

The framework primarily serves educational and research purposes, where it is often important to identify groups of roughly comparable institutions.

[1] The classification generally focuses on types of degrees awarded and related level of activity such as research.

[1] The 2005 report substantially reworked the classification system, based on data from the 2002–2003 and 2003–2004 school years.

[3] The voluntary Classification on Community Engagement is managed by the Public Purpose Institute at Albion College.

[7] Two-year Four-year Tribal Colleges are institutions that belong to the American Indian Higher Education Consortium.

[8] The framework categorizes institutions based on the proportion of undergraduate and graduate programs (defined by their 4-digit CIP) that coexist.

[9] The Enrollment Profile of institutions are classified according to (a) the level of the highest degree awarded and (b) the ratio of undergraduate to graduate students.

wrote Alexander McCormick, a senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation and director of the classifications project.

[16] As of 2005, the Carnegie Foundation was developing one or more voluntary classification schemes that rely on data submitted by institutions.

[15] The first focuses on outreach and community engagement, and the second on "how institutions seek to analyze, understand, and improve undergraduate education.