Syracuse University doctoral program moves to top research tier, according to Carnegie rankings

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University (SU) has moved into the top tier for research activity among all of the nation’s doctorate-degree granting universities. That’s according to the recently released 2015 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.

Syracuse moved up from an “R2” designation in 2010, denoting “higher research activity,” to an “R1” designation, the “top research class” that the Carnegie organization can award a doctoral university, according to an SU news release issued this week.

The R1 list has 115 universities on it while the R2 list contains 107 universities, according to Carnegie.

Carnegie issues its rankings twice a decade. It bases the distinction on an “examination of recent data” that helps its analysts gauge research activity among doctoral institutions.

The criteria for research activity involves factors such as research and development expenditures, research staff, and number of doctoral conferrals.

Syracuse University was among 15 universities nationwide to move from R2 into the top category in the latest rankings, the school said.

“Earning this classification is powerful recognition of our efforts to grow and expand research,” Liz Liddy, SU interim provost, said in the university’s news release. “We have already identified research and discovery as a key focus area in our academic strategic plan, and this is one more step in the right direction.”

The Carnegie Classification is the “widely accepted industry standard” for classifying schools by higher-education researchers and others, SU said.

The Stanford, California–based Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching created the classification and first published it in 1973. In 2014, the Carnegie Foundation shifted responsibility for its Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education to the Indiana University School of Education in Bloomington, Indiana.

The U.S. Department of Education, along with other higher-education associations, uses the classifications to organize data and to determine a school’s eligibility for grant money.

The publication U.S. News and World Report also uses the classifications in grouping institutions by type for its popular Best Colleges rankings guide, SU said.

The Carnegie Classification defines its doctoral grouping as those institutions that awarded at least 20 research/scholarship doctorates in 2013-14, according to the Syracuse release.

Professional practice doctoral degrees, such as law degrees, did not count toward that total.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com