Carnegie Foundation gives UNT highest designation

When the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching releases the final version of its Classification of Institutions of Higher Education 2000 edition in the fall, UNT will be in the top category: among institutions ranked as Doctoral/Research Universities — Extensive.

Official news of UNT's reclassification came to Chancellor and President Alfred F. Hurley in a July letter from Alexander C. McCormick, senior scholar at the Carnegie Foundation.

McCormick explains that the foundation has reduced the extent to which the classification differentiates doctorate-granting institutions. The previous four categories, Research Universities I & II and Doctoral Universities I & II, have been replaced by two new categories, Doctoral/Research Universities — Extensive, for institutions awarding a substantial number of doctorates across a wide range of fields, and Doctoral/Research Universities — Intensive, for institutions awarding doctorates in smaller numbers or in a more concentrated set of fields. UNT's previous classification was Doctoral University I.

The university's new category includes America's most outstanding educational institutions that offer a wide range of baccalaureate programs and are committed to graduate education. All included schools award 50 or more doctoral degrees per year in at least 15 disciplines.

McCormick also states that the Carnegie Foundation will remain committed to developing indicators for research activity, as well as indicators of other traditional components of institutional mission, as it prepares for a major revision of the classification system in 2005.

BY RODDY WOLPER rwolper@unt.edu

Other web resources:

• Carnegie Foundation

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